CAJIDIOCAN, Sibuyan Island– Six kilometers for half a kilogram of rice.

Life has become an arduous trek for daily survival for a little known tribal community here, struck by Typhoon “Frank” as hard as people in places easily found in maps, but not as noticed.

Take the case of Amy Rebiso, a member of the Mangyan-Romblon indigenous group of people on this island, who heard that relief goods were being handed out by the local government from an official in her village.

Rebiso went on the three-kilometer trek to where the goods were being distributed, only to learn that she would have to make that trip daily.

The reason? The half kilogram of rice that officials were distributing to the needy was barely enough for a day’s meal.

So Rebiso, as did several other members of her tribal community, needed to walk six kilometers – to the relief distribution center and back home where hungry mouths were waiting to be fed – daily until their farms start producing the food that they have been surviving on prior to Frank.

She wasn’t sure the six-kilometer walk was worth it. At the end of that trek, she would have the half kilogram of rice and two packs of noodles, a set of meal she has to share with six children.

Rebiso, 30, came with five other women who also took the chance to sell some gabi leaves, the only produce that was left to them after Frank struck on June 21.

“The typhoon took our livelihood, our plants,” said Angela Riano, 70, one of the women of Mangyan-Romblon.

Miriam Riano, 35, was able to sell four stems of gabi leaves. She earned P40 for them, using the money to buy two kilograms of government-subsidized rice at P20 per kg.

Prior to Frank, the community thrived on food that its farms grew. After the typhoon, the only edible thing left was cassava, a root crop that couldn’t sustain daily nutrition needs.

“We lost our animals, our chickens,” said the women.

But getting food wasn’t the only problem.

Frank destroyed their homes, exposing their children to cold. Many of the children are now suffering from asthma, said the women.

In place of the roofs that have been blown over, the tribal people placed coconut leaves.

Alice Fetalvero, vice governor of Romblon province, said the suffering of the Mangyan-Romblon community was typical of the hardships that the entire province was going through after Frank – it goes unnoticed.

“The entire province has been damaged,” she said.

Aid organizations, particularly the Philippine National Red Cross, brought 5,000 packs of relief goods.

In the village of Mabini, people were told to start the trek to relief distribution centers early because the roads were barely passable as a result of landslides.