Rising Up the Mountains Once Again
Amidst their community’s continuous recovery from Typhoon Mangkhut, 33-year old mother of three, Lanie strives to help address the needs of her community while tending to her family.
When typhoon Mangkhut devastated the mountainous regions of Northern Luzon, barangays were unreachable. Most of the roads were blocked and the one leading to Kabayan took five days to be cleared and accessible, no one could go in or out of the town.
“Our houses were filled with mud, rocks big and small were scattered across alley ways, and our two-week old crops were destroyed,” Lanie recalls her experience.
Their farmlands were left bare and their harvest-ready crops were buried under rubbles, leaving them with limited food and water for her family of five. Her family mostly relies on agriculture for their daily needs. Her husband delivers their crops from Kabayan to La Trinidad, but with no vegetables to transport and obstructed roads, their livelihood was greatly affected for several weeks. The case was not different in each household in Kabayan.
Working with New Partners
Lanie is the Barangay Nutrition Action Officer of Barangay Gusaran, Kabayan, Benguet. After the Typhoon Ompong struck, she spearheaded the community needs assessment in her barangay for the recovery support project. Funded by the European Commission, the project was led by a consortium of international and local non-government organisations — CARE, Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Plan International, International Organization on Migration (IOM), ACCORD Inc, Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services (CORDIS), Cagayan Valley Disaster Response Center, and Alalay sa Kaunlaran Inc. (ASKI).
The project provided access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities and livelihood to households in the provinces of Cagayan, Kalinga, and Benguet. Seminars on hygiene were also conducted by the Consortium to instill good hygienic practices among families.
“Participating in the seminars reminded us of basic hygiene practices. Proper handwashing was also taught to our children in school. The water systems and sanitation facilities were built near common areas such as the barangay hall and the clinic so it is accessible for many.”
When the project started, the whole community was still struggling to make ends meet. The cash-for-work programme was introduced to the locals for them to gain an alternative source of livelihood as they rebuild their farms.
Women of Barangay Gusaran worked together and were able to create water systems and sanitation facilities. “Everyone became involved in the construction. Men and women had equal tasks, as long as we are fit to do so,” Lanie narrates. It was not new to the community, she highlights, as women also contribute to farming and agricultural efforts in their area.
Leading her Community Up
Lanie volunteered to do conduct the profiling of the community, together with the barangay health workers. She was also the barangay’s point person whenever equipment and construction supplies would come. “Because I hold most of the records of our barangay, I decided to volunteer to be part of the project. I would communicate with the project engineers whenever there are other needed materials for the construction of the facilities or when there are problems.”
Lanie also took the lead in spreading the word about the project. She would introduce the project to her neighbors through word of mouth and through text. Aside from organizing WASH seminars together with the consortium, Lanie would also be the representative to speak on behalf of her community. “It was through this experience I learned to speak in front more. I realized that it was fun thing to do and I would like to do it more in the future — teaching others about the importance of WASH and being prepared during emergencies.”
Her community is now focusing on finding partner which can help them rebuild their farm-to-market roads and vegetable dryers they can use for their crops. “This involvement with the European Union opened us to several opportunities to help our community more. We are really thankful we were able to partner with them in rebuilding our small town of Gusaran.”
Photo taken with consent of the subject
