Survivor tales

It’s not just new houses or school buildings or roads and bridges that the survivors of Tropical Storm “Sendong” in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan City and Negros Oriental need. They also need, according to Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, stress de-briefing and psycho-social counseling to recover from the trauma of that devastation, recover their capacity for hope, and rebuild their lives, their families and their communities.

Addressing the media gathering “Bulong Pulungan sa Sofitel,” Soliman came armed with stories told her by survivors, many of them children, that are filled with horrific details about being swept out to sea, clinging to a wooden plank for up to eight hours in total darkness and chilling waters, and landing on the shore of distant islands.

As part of their effort to help the child survivors recover from the trauma, Soliman said the DSWD even brought in young members from the group of Efren Peñaflorida, the CNN hero who works with out-of-school youth in the famous “kariton classrooms.” The children and youth from Luzon, themselves survivors of abuse, homelessness and abject poverty, simply talked with the child survivors of “Sendong,” sharing their own personal stories of deprivation and listening as the children shared their stories of survival.

But clearly the adult and child survivors still need more help. To this day, said Soliman, “some children will start crying whenever it rains.” Aside from the social workers and counselors in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, Soliman said they are asking institutions or organizations in Manila and other parts of the country to send personnel to cope with the demand. “They just need to be able to tell their stories and share their emotions, for if they keep these bottled up, these emotions could lead to depression,” said Soliman. Already, she said, they are seeing signs of “survivor’s guilt.”

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But amid the guilt and grief, said Soliman, there are signs of the vaunted Filipino resilience. One woman, one of those survivors tapped to tell their stories during the recent “build” of houses led by P-Noy, talked about how she and her husband fled the floodwaters with their three young children in their arms. They clung to a tree, but in the surge of the tides, the children were swept away. She later found her three children among the dead, but, she said with a smile, “fortunately, my husband is still alive.”

This little statement drew laughter from her audience, most of whom had similar stories to share, and as one foreign UN official remarked afterwards, it showed just how typical Pinoy humor saves the day and lightens people’s burdens.

The burden is truly great, and Soliman estimates that almost half-a-million families were affected by the surging floodwaters, including residents of middle-class subdivisions and government workers, some of them social workers, police and soldiers who had to stay at their posts even as their families struggled to find shelter. The first families who won the raffle for the new homes put in “sweat equity” into the construction of their homes, and then get paid wages for helping in the construction of others.

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Among the child survivors of Sendong, 17,000 are beneficiaries of the “4 P’s,” the conditional cash transfer program administered by the DSWD that provides monthly amounts to poor families so they could keep sending their children to school, access basic health services, and attend community orientation sessions on matters like family planning and budgeting.

By the end of March, said Soliman, some three million families would be benefiting from the “4 P’s,” and by her own estimate this translates to “about six million children” who are going to school and keeping healthy.

To skeptics who doubt the reach and efficacy of the program, Soliman said that by February, the SWS will conduct an “impact evaluation study” of the “4 P’s” which will guide the agency and the government on the conduct of the program and future directions.

But even now, said Soliman, they are looking at implementing entrepreneurship and employment programs for beneficiary-families, “so that by 2013, we would see these families with healthy children and secure livelihoods.”

In some parts of the country, beneficiaries are being hired to build rice paddies, while others receive training in the basics of running a business or in self-employment.

Still, said Soliman, for most beneficiaries, it’s all about the children. “Many of these families have experienced three generations of poverty, and they see the possibility of their children graduating from grade school and moving on to high school as their key to escaping the trap of poverty.”

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How does the DSWD secretary cope with the trauma and the stress?

“My faith, which I believe enables me to see that there is always hope in the midst of hardship,” she said. “I try to see the God in people, the spark that allows them to move on and keep going.”

It also helps, she added, that she can count on “a circle of friends” who allow her time and space to vent, to laugh, to just be.

But the best de-stressor of all, Soliman shared, is simply spending time with her two-year-old granddaughter Tala Alipia (Star of Hope), “playing with her, basking in her unconditional love.”

Being DSWD secretary has to be one of the most thankless jobs in government, with criticism from the media, from politicians and even from the very people you are trying to help, adding to the demands of relief and rehabilitation work and answering the needs of the most needy, impoverished, overlooked and abused members of society. But sometimes, a grandchild can be the greatest reward of all.