Category: Disaster Relief

In the latter part of last year the Goducate team in Laguna helped the victims of Typhoon Hagabat, which hit Bay, in our own province of Laguna in August, by training them in livelihood skills—the men in agricultural techniques and the women in soapmaking and other handicraft.

In December 2012 Typhoon Bopha (a “supertyphoon” known locally as Typhoon Pablo) hit the southern Philippines. It was the strongest ever typhoon to hit the region, causing about a1000 deaths and many hundreds (about half of them fishermen) to go missing. Because of our experience helping the victims of Typhoon Hagabat, and because we had contacts in Compostela Valley, one of the provinces hit, we decided to explore the possibility of whether Goducate could help the people there.

Our first action during our trip early this month was to drop off emergency supplies with our friends, for them to distribute through their organizations. Then we set off to visit the area worst affected. This used to be a village with around 100 houses, but we found only one house and half a church standing. We also saw badly damaged coconut and banana plantations. It could take 8 months to a year for a banana plant to recover and produce a harvest. For coconuts, the time could be 5 years.

We also visited a small home enterprise that, if scaled up, could provide jobs to many people.

Overall, there is a likelihood that Goducate could train the victims of Compostela Valley to help themselves. We are now mulling over plans as to how we can proceed.

The musicians in the Goducate music program in Laguna have been trained to help themselves. Some have gained music scholarships to enable them to continue their education in high school or college, those in the orchestra earn some income by playing at local events, and others earn money by giving private music lessons. The musicians also help others. The more accomplished musicians are volunteer music teachers for newcomers to the program. At the end of last year the orchestra also staged a concert to raise money to pay for the school fees for several of their members.

About a week ago, on Dec 23, members of the orchestra raised funds for victims of Typhoon Bopha, known locally as Typhoon Pablo. This “supertyphoon” was the strongest tropical cyclone ever to hit the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.

Goducate Laguna has been helping the victims of Typhoon Hagabat, which affected people in Bay, in Laguna Province. Goducate has been training some of the victims of Typhoon Hagabat in livelihood skills. The men have been taught agricultural techniques and offered some work at the Goducate Model Farm in Laguna, while the women have been taught how to make soap and other handicraft.

Mindanao is nowhere near Laguna. However, it so happened that just before Typhoon Bopha struck, Goducate Laguna had been visited by some friends from Compostela Valley, one of the areas affected by Typhoon Bopha. Hence the orchestra decided to raise funds to help the victims of that typhoon. The rather impromptu “mini-concert” that the orchestra put up, mostly of Christmas songs, was held in the open, at the entrance to the building in which the Goducate Music Studio is sited, and a small sum was raised from passers-by.

In the first week of August this year, parts of the Philippines underwent severe flooding and damage from intense rain. Although the damage was caused by a strong movement of the southwest monsoon, rather than by a typhoon, the severity of the damage led the abnormal weather conditions to be known informally as Typhoon Hagabat [monsoon]. Bay, in Laguna Province, where much of Goducate work in the Philippines is concentrated, was one of the areas damaged. 500 families in Bay were affected, and are still being housed in evacuation centers.

The Goducate team in Laguna has been helping these families by training them in agricultural methods and offering them some work at the Goducate Model Farm. They have been learning different methods of farming such as hydroponics, backyard farming, and organic farming. They also get an allowance for helping with chores at the farm, such as watering, planting, ploughing, and cleaning of the premises. Through this, they are not just earning money but are also learning to know the importance of self will and discipline in helping themselves.

While the men are busy on the farm, 40 of the women have been learning another livelihood skill—that of making soap and dishwashing liquid. We hope that this skill will give those families another means of income.