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.
