Remember kids in aid drive

CAUGHT IN CONFLICT Raisah Labay, one of the residents displaced by fighting in Marawi City, cradles her newborn at an evacuation site in the village of Buru-on in Iligan City. —AFP

A group of young professionals in Metro Manila and nearby provinces is raising funds and collecting goods for families displaced by the fighting in Marawi City, particularly infants and children in the conflict zone.

In Rizal province, couple Rene and Weng Borromeo, as of Friday, have raised close to P40,000 and several children’s toys and clothes, after Rene posted the donation drive on Facebook on June 6.

The couple plans to use the money to buy goods, including infant diapers, feeding bottles, baby clothes, and medicines and vitamins for about 200 families.

“The target beneficiaries are the babies, children and their mothers affected by this crisis. [We want to] help them resume their normal lives,” Rene said.

A development worker, Rene, 41, said it was a “personal initiative” to bring the donations directly to Marawi City, the ground zero of the fighting between government troops and the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Provisions for children

In an interview, Rene shared how he was, at first, “unmoved” by calls for donations, as he thought President Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao following the Marawi siege was “counterintuitive.”

The President placed Mindanao under military rule as he vowed to quash terrorist groups on the island.

“As a development worker, I know the key to social change and development is empowering people, not concentrating power in the hands of one individual,” Rene said.

“But Weng said my dislike for the government shouldn’t have anything to do with [helping people],” he said.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Cabinet Secretary Norkhalila Mae Mambuay-Campong pointed out the need for provisions for children and infants.

On Tuesday, 18 “balikbayan” boxes containing baby stuff were sent to families in Malabang town in Lanao del Sur province and in Kapatagan town in Lanao del Norte province. These came from a donor in Metro Manila, Mambuay-Campong said.

“If we look at the list of [relief goods] from the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), most of these are for adults and not much (for children), like diapers or baby clothes,” Mambuay-Campong said in a telephone interview from Cotabato City.

“If families evacuate, do they leave their children behind? No. The children’s conditions are pitiful. Are we to give a 6-month-old [child] canned goods?” she added.

Long-term effect

She said 83 percent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) were home-based, meaning they stayed outside evacuation centers.

Mambuay-Campong said that as part of their culture, Maranaos preferred to stay with relatives during crisis situations.

Many are forced to stay in cramped spaces.

“There is [a situation] where 42 families are staying in one house,” she said.

According to Mambuay-Campong, in Iligan City alone, 5 percent of IDPs are aged 2 years and below. Several children evacuees are between the ages of 2 and 5.

As an advocate of breastfeeding, she discouraged donating formula milk.

She said they had established “milk banks” in Malabang and Saguiaran towns and encouraged volunteer wet nurses in evacuation centers.

According to Mambuay-Campong, their culture considers breastmilk donors as “milk mothers,” meaning the infant-recipient can no longer marry the donor’s child as they are already considered siblings. Hence, donors should be known to recipients.

The conflict has long-term effects on children, making them more vulnerable to extremism, she said.

“These children are vulnerable. If they feel neglected, they become easy [targets] of recruitment or brainwashing,” she said.