Mindanao: Update

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In the past 4 days, HOPE worldwide Staff and Volunteers provided relief assistance to the affected members of Metro Cagayan De Oro Church and visited evacuation centers and affected communities in Cagayan De Oro and Iligan City.

In December 23, the HOPE-CHF Mobile Puppet Theater Van arrived in Cagayan De Oro together with 500 coffins, tons of drinking water, goods, and in-kind donations through the effort of different helping agencies. The arrival of HOPE-CHF Van and large amount of in kind donations made possible through the help of the Philippine navy Ship. The HOPE teams are also attending different national and local disasters coordinating meetings in the ground and some of the problems encountered are the following:

Evacuation centers:

  • Very overcrowded, poor water, sanitation and waste management, many young children already with diarrhea and getting ill
  • Described by many as unbearable situation in evacuation centers
  • Little or very minimal crowd control
  • Leadership of who's in control not visible
  • System of distribution of relief goods very unsystematic, with reports of alleged repeat recipients and reports of people who are not directly affected by the floods receiving relief goods
  • Evacuation centers without media coverage also not getting enough relief
  • City Central School evacuation center in CDO getting most of the relief goods, to the detriment of other evacuation centers
Directly affected communities:
  • Reportedly still a lot of missing persons, likely buried under thick debris and mud
  • Relief goods not reaching directly affected areas
  • People who are trying to salvage belongings and who prefer to avoid the unbearable conditions in the evacuation centers are not able to go to relief distribution centers
  • People in the areas have been traumatized by the whole experience and face extreme uncertainty regarding where they will take shelter, also in the context of authorities prohibiting their return to the high-risk zones

HOPE worldwide Team from Cebu will soon arrive in the disaster area to help the psychosocial, child protection and relief operations of HOPE worldwide.