Providing Relief from Within the Community
By Annila Harris
Lifting the shades of her tiny traditionally built petty shop, Violeta is ready to start business for the day.
The morning run to the city market is done, now one by one she lays out the items for her customers to see. In the midst of skeleton frames of what once were houses, left behind by Typhoon Haiyan, Violeta’s battered store brings a ray of hope.
"I run a small store here. The shop is inside the house," says Violeta. She lives in San Antonio with her extended family.
"Though announcements were being made, we never expected it to be so big and that it would be disastrous. I have no words to explain," says she.
"Despite moving to a higher place we were not safe there. Even the evacuation centre roof was flown away by the wind. It was very strong; there were more than 20 people. I was scared for the life of the children at home, we were crying and praying, all of us were wet by the rain as the roof had flown away," says she.
In just a short time, Haiyan had turned Violeta’s barangay into a pile of debris and ash.
With a sigh Violeta says, "It was all gone. The sight was heartbreaking, the school was roofless, the houses were totally damaged. The trees were down to the ground."
Day faded to night bringing further challenges of uncertainty.
"The first night was roofless, we slept wet and cold. It was raining still; we had only curtains to protect us," says Violeta.
Despite Violeta’s harrowing and traumatic experience, she decided to open her damaged shop; providing instant relief for people looking for food and basic essentials.
"The first thing that I did was clean up what was left and put my shop together and start selling. I opened my shop the very next day,” says she.
As people flocked to her shop, some asked for free goods and some on a loan basis.
We may be homeless but we will never be hopeless.
"We are Filipinos and we will help each other in spite of everything that has happened. It is the spirit of Filipinos; the spirit of hospitality, the spirit of unity is still there, the love to each other is still there," says Violeta.
"When I see my little nieces and son, I see hope. Because of them, I tell myself that I need to live for them and need to be strong for them. I have hope because of them. If they see us give up, they will lose hope. With the assistance from organisations such as World Vision we can move towards achieving our state of normalcy," says she.
Grateful and thankful for the relief goods from World Vision, Violeta emphasizes the satisfaction with the quantity received. "Even now we have the relief goods, it lasts for a couple of weeks," says she.
Ecstatic about her son, Raven participating in World Vision’s child friendly space she says, "My son comes home and tells me about what he learns about at the centre. He tells me people from World Vision are nice. Raven likes to draw there. I am happy that even though you come from other places in the world, and we are from different nationalities, you are here to cheer us up."
According to Violeta attending the Child Friendly Space in San Antonio is the start of the healing processes for children. "This is a start because the children have lost everything. This space gives them hope and light. Without it the children wouldn’t have pens or pencils, they totally lost everything," says she.
With the advent of the Christmas season, she reflects on her resilience. Violeta says, "This Christmas may be different because of the lack of material things but in spirit it is still the same or I can say it has made me stronger in faith. I am thankful to God that we all survived and there are no causalities in my communality. We are so blessed. We may be homeless but we will never be hopeless."
She says, "If you have faith, everything follows. Though we do not have material goods we can have joy in our hearts. We may have less food but still celebrate the spirit of Christmas in our hearts and the hearts of our children."