ILIGAN CITY, Philippines—Nursing his slightly feverish 4-year-old son inside a 10-square-meter octagonal tent, Bernie Dominguez arranges his family’s clothes inside a lightweight but tough green-colored box.
Dominguez’s extended family of seven just moved into the so-called “tent city” run by the Rotary Club on one-hecare piece of land owned by the government near a bus terminal in the village of Tambo.
“It is far better here than in our makeshift house,” said Dominguez.
Dominguez’s wife, two children, a nephew, brother-in-law and mother-in-law survived the flash floods unleashed by Tropical Storm Sendong on December 17. But their house in the village of Barinaut was destroyed.
A day after the disaster, Dominguez gathered what remained of his house and erected a shanty that could barely shield them from the elements. Blankets donated by relief agencies served as walls during the night to protect them from the cold wind.
Dominguez, a welder, considers his new temporary shelter of a tent “like a birthday gift.” He turned 39 last December 29, a day before they relocated.
The “tent city” was put up by the Rotary International and ShelterBox, an international disaster relief charity based in Britain with 21 affiliates worldwide.
According to its Web site, ShelterBox seeks to deliver “emergency shelter, warmth and dignity to people made homeless by disasters worldwide.”
The name of the agency is synonymous with the form of disaster relief response it brings—a green box containing emergency shelter and other vital items.
At the heart of every “shelter box” is the tent.
According to ShelterBox, the tent is custom made for it by Vango, a leading maker of tents, and is “designed to withstand extreme temperatures, intense ultraviolet light, high winds and heavy rainfall.”
Inside the tent, there are two “privacy partitions” that allow users to divide the space according to their needs.
Apart from the tent, the green box also typically contains thermal blankets, insulated groundsheets, water storage and filtration equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, and a children’s activity pack.
The box itself can be used as storage container or cot for a new-born.
Dominguez looks forward to an orientation by Rotary on the other contents of the box.
Rotarian Nods Dalman, a duty manager at the tent city, said that as of Friday, 50 tents had been set up and recipients had occupied them.
On Saturday, 30 more units were pitched, each one taking a crew of four Philippine Army soldiers just a few minutes.
Dalman said 70 more tents were forthcoming.
Recipients are evaluated by the council of Rotary Clubs in Iligan in coordination with the City Social Welfare and Development Office, Dalman said.
They are usually those who have completely lost their homes, used to live in areas no longer allowed by the local government for settlement, and signified a wish to be permanently relocated.
Dalman pointed out that the tent city will serve only as a transitional shelter.
Work on the ‘tent city’ started December 20, preparing the once marshy ground by filling it with a mix of soil and sand.
The tent city is properly zoned, and tents are arranged in rows. The tents in each row are spaced one meter from each other. A row of tents is about two meters away from another to allow for walkways.
A road that can accommodate vehicles separates one zone from another zone. For every 10 meters, ‘streetlights’ are installed. These are the only sources of lighting for tent occupants, although most of them use either battery-powered or chargeable lamps.
For easy location when someone looks for another person within the tent city, each tent is assigned numbers and the name of the household head is printed on its “address card,” just like a regular residential locator plate.
For the moment, tent city residents use the limited toilet and bath facilities of the local government motorpool nearby while portable toilets or portalets are still being made.
Dalman said a communal kitchen will be made where all occupants will do their cooking and not near the tents as they currently do.
Rotary is also setting up a water tank to ensure adequate water supply. Currently, water is supplied by a firetruck.
Dalman said that they have also made arrangements with the local government to deliver to the camp the relief supplies of its occupants, instead of them lining up for these in their former evacuation camps.
Rotary Iligan district governor George Hamoy said they have endorsed the request of the local government that the city be provided with some 5,000 more such tents.
As a result of the flood, some 4,800 families were left without destroyed while close to 11,000 more have had their home damaged.
According to ShelterBox, a donation of 25 euros is needed for the green box alone, 55 euros for thermal blankets and groundsheets, 230 euros for tent, and 590 euros for the complete set of disaster relief materials contained in the “shelter box.”
Former Bayug Island resident Daisy Mendoza, 31, looks forward to rebuilding her family’s life while in the tent city.
Her daughter, Leahn, 9, although still coping with the loss of two cousins and a lola, begins picking up from the tragedy.
“It’s like camping,” Leahn described their new home.