WHAT did not kill some five million people-- super typhoon
Yolanda mauled them to an inch of their lives—will likely toughen them. They
have withstood. They will stand. They will move on with their lives.
Vegetable vendor Clarissa Bueno, 42, is eyeing a P10,000
loan to go back to tending her stall at a market in a town adjacent to
Tacloban. With that seed money, she hopes to recoup her losses and send two of
her children back to school—one is a grade 7 student, another is a criminology
freshman.
A father to six children, 31-year-old fisherman Diorico
Cordoves says he needs P20,000 to buy a five-horsepower diesel engine and a
small boat to fit it to. He avers with resolve: “I could provide for our daily
needs and my children will be happy.”
Most of the other nameless Yolanda victims have a life to
live and livelihoods to regain—the packs of relief goods that will fall into
their hands will merely hush their hunger for a time. They deserve more than a
few kilos of rice, tins of sardines, packets of instant noodles, and
hand-me-down clothes.
"If we want to avoid entire regions of the country
having to rely on food aid, we need to act now to help vulnerable families to
plant or replant by late December," says a top official of the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO).
FAO plans are afoot to supply seeds for rice and corn,
including tools, fertilizer and irrigation equipment. Too, "families will
also receive vegetable seeds to help bridge the gap before the next
harvest," it added.
In Bicol, Albay threw open its doors to adopt 10,000 Yolanda
victims to be housed in newly built evacuation centers. Provincial Governor Joey
Salceda, helped out by the region’s Office of Civil Defense and the Department
of Social Welfare and Development will see to their needs for 12 months—or
until the victims’ homes have been rebuilt.
Conservative estimates peg at 500,000 the number of shelter
units that needs to be built for some 2,000,000 rendered homeless by the super
typhoon. At a modest P250,000 cost per shelter unit, the government needs to
cough up a tempting sum for the venal to drool at-- P125 billion.
The homeless need homes to dwell in but the hardiest of
Yolanda survivors are setting their minds on things less costly than a P250,000
abode.
A vegetable vendor is keen on P10,000 seed money to re-start
her modest mode of keeping body and soul together.
A fisherman father of six hankers for P20,000 with which to
ply the seas anew and bring food to the family table.
A man of the soil is setting his sights on P60,000 loan to
raise crops anew and renew a life shook up by a storm.
Each is bidding a farewell to alms.
Tough conditions bring out the toughness in people. And when
the going gets tough, indeed, the tough gets going.
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