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(In 2006 the Bicol region was hit by two typhoons
affecting more than 200,000 families. A recent mission
by the International Labor Organization [ILO] to the
country revealed that 30 percent of the workers
concerned were unemployed and many more in precarious
jobs. In February the ILO opened a livelihood center in
the region which is part of a capacity-building program
for the victims.)
DURIAN—named after a spiky Asian fruit—was the fourth
typhoon to hit the Philippines in only three months, and
the world’s second-deadliest disaster in 2006 after the
earthquake on the Indonesian
island of
Java.
More
than a year has passed since the tropical storm killed
1,399 people, yet the trauma is still alive. Thousands
continue to live in temporary shelters, and the
devastating effects on employment and livelihood
persist.
After
the storm, Marites and her husband had to dig in the mud
for 16 days just to find his driver’s license so he
could return to work as a jeep driver.
“We
didn’t know where to go. My store was destroyed. I used
to earn P1,000 [$25] and my husband another P300 [$7.50]
a day. After the typhoon we had no income,” remembers
Marites. Her family was evacuated to a school where they
lived for a few months. Then they stayed in a tent
before they were relocated to a temporary shelter.
Durian
was the worst typhoon to hit the Bicol region. Among the
six provinces in the region, Albay suffered the most
with 604 people killed and 229,572 families affected by
the typhoon.
“For 47
years, this is the first time I have experienced such a
strong typhoon. We are desperate. Our house was
destroyed, four columns are all what’s left of it,” says
Ruth, a 48-year-old typhoon survivor and mother of four
children.
Rosemarie, a mother of five children, rejoins her: “I am
a dressmaker and my husband is a tricycle driver. After
the strong typhoon, my husband is not earning enough,
life has been very difficult. We have a very low
income.”
Initial
findings of the ILO covering households in temporary
shelters revealed that after one year’s stay in these
sites, 30 percent did not look for work simply because
they believe there is no work available. About 69
percent were employed, but most of them only held
precarious jobs, pushing the survivors into poverty.
Last
February the ILO opened its livelihood center in Daraga,
Albay.
“The
establishment of this livelihood center is a starting
point. I am convinced that this community is full of
talents, skills and enthusiasm and will be able to
overcome the terrible experience of the typhoon,”
explains Linda Wirth, director of the ILO Subregional
Office in Manila.
According to Wirth, the situation in Albay is a test
case for the ILO promoting decent work in crisis and
reconstruction situations. “We think that the creation
of employment and livelihoods is the only way to lift
people out of poverty,” says Wirth.
The
livelihood center was built in partnership with the
local government, the Bicol Center for Community
Development, the National Housing Authority, the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and
the Department of Labor and Employment.
According to Rafael Triunfante Jr., president of the
Bicol Center for Community Development, many of the
earlier relief projects in the region were “not
sustainable, but this time it is different: we moved
from smaller groups to bigger ones in which the women
organized themselves. Thus, the funds will be maximized
to promote economic development.”
Entrepreneurship training was conducted while market
linkages, equipment and start-up capital were provided
to typhoon survivors.
Bukluran—unity—is
key to relief efforts “We learned the importance of
uniting and organizing ourselves. Bukluran, the name of
our organization, means unity,” explains Ruth, who now
heads the organization as its president. Marites, now a
member of Bukluran’s board of directors, hopes to expand
the livelihood center to reach out to other typhoon
survivors.
Unity is
also key to national and international relief efforts.
The ILO cochairs a cluster on livelihood recovery
together with the DSWD of the Philippines The country
mainstreamed the cluster approach in its Disaster
Management System spearheaded by the National Disaster
Coordinating Council.
What’s
more, the ILO joined 18 UN agencies in an early-recovery
cluster in 2005 which calls for more effective,
predictable and timely action in postcrisis situations,
and has established a specific collaboration for joint
emergency response.
Through
this partnership, the UN agencies can together be more
effective in improving the situation of the most
vulnerable in post-disaster and postconflict situations
by jointly evaluating needs, sharing and adapting
livelihood-promotion schemes and designing and
implementing common strategies and projects for the
promotion of livelihoods in both rural and urban areas.
“The
primary goal is to reinforce and improve existing links
and synergies between agricultural activities and
income-generating opportunities, thereby helping to
reduce beneficiaries’ dependency on food aid as soon as
possible,” concludes Wirth. (ILO staff member Minette
Rimando reporting from Manila) |
