‘Sendong’ victims need undies, too

PHOTO BY JB R. DEVEZA

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines — Please don’t forget to include undies — and cooking utensils.

This is the request of local relief organizations here to agencies gathering money and relief goods for people who lost their homes and pretty much everything else to the flashfloods triggered by Tropical Storm “Sendong”.

Tina Lomoljo, executive director of non-governmental organization  Balay Integrated Rehabilitation for Total Human Development (BIRTH-DEV) Inc., said the supply of underwear for men, women and children was the “usually overlooked relief needs” in the aftermath of disasters.

Lomoljo, whose organization is part of the Mindanao Emergency Relief Network (MERN), added that the concern over undies cropped up during a  day-to-day assessment of the  needs of the evacuees.

She said MERN told partner agencies of this need so they would be properly addressed in their humanitarian activities.

Journalists Lino dela Cruz and Frank Dosdos, both news anchors at local radio stations, also related that the evacuees themselves had voiced their need for undies.

According to the City Social Welfare and Development Office, some 3,497 families or 15,930 people are crammed in 28 evacuation centers in various parts of Iligan.

On what used to be Bayug Island, some 20 families who chose to remain in their shattered houses, clamored for mats and blankets. Most of them sleep outside the rubble of their houses and under trees.

While relief supplies have reached the island, most of the families are without cooking utensils, and use large milk cans to cook rice.