In aid of aid

Think of this scenario right after an earthquake or a typhoon: people waiting for hours to get relief, which finally comes as a bag of rice or packets of instant noodles.  The goods make people feel good, or so we think.  The donors feel they’ve done their part. But the disaster survivors aren’t quite sure what to do next.

Oops, someone forgot there’s no water yet for the rice or the noodles.  Or there are no cooking utensils, or LPG, or firewood.   And, as one farmers’ assistance group coordinator told me, smiling rather sheepishly because his and other organizations had made these mistakes in the past with relief operations, even if the survivors do have water, and cooking stuff, donors often forget something very basic: matches.

The adage “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” can’t be more applicable than in many relief operations.   The hunger that comes after a disaster isn’t just physiological but also psychological.  Many readers know the feeling of being overseas and pining for rice, which is not common in the place, and, after two or three days of sandwiches, or couscous, or whatever the staple is there, still feeling hungry. They find ways to get rice, pleading that their stomach is “Filipino” or “Asian.”

Which is why it is hell for disaster survivors to get that bag of rice and having nothing to cook the rice with.  It can be worse with instant noodles, what with the wrappers showing cooked noodles overflowing with meat.

And if it isn’t enough that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, there may be a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t situation here.  If only rice is distributed, even the hungriest of disaster survivors just might not be able to eat because even the poorest of the poor will have at least salt or salted fish to go with the rice.  As for instant noodles, the packet of flavoring does spice up the noodles, but the high sodium content can trigger high blood pressure among the already stressed survivors.

Blind spots

We need to be careful about our aid, which is why I thought of this “In aid of aid” column.  I had thought of another title, “Blind spots,” to emphasize that we often wear blinders in the way we plan our relief work—for example, not realizing that people may not even have matches after a disaster.  Or, in an even more hellish situation, there may be matches available but all are wet and useless.

For food then, ready-to-eat goods is still best.  That’s a lot of canned goods (don’t forget the can openers), but don’t forget that baked goods help, too: bread and the many types of biscuits and pastries.  They’re still carbohydrates, and they can provide some kind of relief from the usual drab relief goods.  Candies?  I’m not too excited about that, but maybe, again as a treat.

Don’t get me wrong: Rice is still important.  As I mentioned earlier, the rice is important culturally, signifying a full meal.  Not only that: Rice is comfort food, as are many other familiar food items, and we need a lot of these comfort foods after a disaster.  Okay, so maybe instant noodles, too, but it’s really hot soup that’s at work here.  We do need relief workers to put up soup kitchens in the field, handing out warm soup especially at night.

At my college in the University of the Philippines, we discussed what we could do for students who will be stranded in Manila during Christmas.  We first thought we could have them “adopted” by families, but that’s another example of misplaced good intentions.  Families are fine, if you know them.  But students might feel awkward staying with people they don’t know.  I suggested we work out arrangements to have all of them in one or two dorms.  They’d be with friends, with province mates, and we could get volunteers (preferably Waray, Cebuano and Ilonggo speakers) to organize events, including a Christmas party.

In the disaster areas, we don’t need to wait till Christmas to brighten the refugees’ lives.  Our celebrities should be thinking of combining gigs with relief operations in the devastated areas after the situation becomes more stable.  And please, please, be very careful with the jokes.  We have a wonderful sense of humor but in disaster areas, even the most innocent attempt at poking fun at others—a common Filipino sport—could be disastrous.

Back to the relief goods, I appreciated that front-page article in the Inquirer reminding people to donate that Filipino icon, the tabo.  We often translate that into “water dipper,” which is a weak term because the tabo has so many functions, including being a familiar and comforting household item.  Never mind if there’s no clean water yet.  Just having it around brings back some sense of a return, however slowly, to normalcy.

Stereotypes

I also appreciated Thelma Sioson-San Juan’s column in Lifestyle about “calamity-time stereotypes”—the eternal critic, for example.  Another stereotype, a good one, of course, would be “the young and the idealistic, the old and idealistic”—fellow Inquirer writer Pam Pastor as an example with her “polish for panties” drive.  Pam left bottles of nail polish on an Inquirer workstation and, I guess on an honor system, you get one and give cash to buy underwear (presumably women’s) for “Yolanda” survivors.

That reminded me of one of our most important blind spots: the specific needs of women in times of disaster.  We donate all kinds of clothes, even party gowns, but forget the underwear (really, I think donating used underwear, for men or for women, isn’t appropriate) and sanitary napkins, and other more specific needs for the pregnant and the breastfeeding.  There’s a good article in the National Public Radio website (npr.org) titled “Like Food and Water, Women’s Safety a Priority for Relief Aid,”  emphasizing the need to look into relief goods that make disaster areas safer for women—for example, solar lanterns with cell phone chargers.

Talking about cellphone chargers, the UP National Institute of Physics is asking for old cell phone chargers, which it can reassemble into chargers that operate on an AA battery.  Electricity won’t be restored that soon yet in many areas, but the cell phone signals are already returning.  We’re going to see a lot of “pasa load” in the next few weeks.

Let’s return to the matter of clothing donations.  I’ve noticed that most of the used clothing is for women, which has resulted in some situations that provide comic relief in disaster areas: men ending up in dusters.  There was a student in my college that did a thesis some years back on a fiesta in Pampanga where men (macho men, and not transgenders) dress up for a day as women. One theory about the origin of that fiesta is that there was a typhoon that resulted in too many women’s clothing, so the townsfolk decided to make a fiesta out of cross-dressing.

Finally, don’t forget the kids.  EcoWaste Coalition is calling for donations of toys.  No guns, please, and make sure to avoid toys made of PVC (polyvinyl plastic).  Also, be wary of cheap (and sometimes not so cheap) toys with lead-laced paint.  Best to avoid giving away toys where the paint is chipping away.

E-mail: mtan@inquirer.com.ph