A survivor from Tacloban, which was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan cries while taking on a mobile phone after disembarking a Philippine Air Force C-130 aircraft at the Villamor Airbase, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013, in Manila, Philippines. AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Her last memory of her family was seeing them walk out the door of their house as water from the nearby ocean came rushing inside into their home.
“I have no more future in Tacloban. I don’t want to go back.”
The lone survivor in a family of five, 22-year-old Jennifer Tañajura, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer she could not see her future in her village of Naga-Naga, Tacloban City. Her mother, father and two siblings drowned when the storm surge hit the city at the height of “Supertyphoon Yolanda.” She survived by climbing to the roof on time.
“I came here to Manila to find a job and start again. Maybe it is not yet too late for me even if I lost all my family members. I still hope to finish my studies and reach my dreams,” Tañajura said.
Since her arrival at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City on Friday, Tañajura said that volunteers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) have helped her weigh employment options in the metro.
Hope and gratitude was the message of Tañajura and 24 other survivors from Leyte, Tacloban and Samar in their special participation in the Unity Run that started at the Luneta Park, Roxas Boulevard, Manila on Sunday morning.
Carrying the flags of the various nations and international organizations who sent aid to the Philippines after the typhoon devastation, the survivors waved the flags and gave short messages of thanks to each country and organization after the run.
Organized by the Order of the Knights of Rizal (Okor), the Unity Run was held “to signify the gratefulness of the Filipino people considering the overwhelming amount of aid that has poured in from all corners of the globe.”
With the theme “Ramdam ang Pasasalamat Mula sa Kilometer Zero (Gratitude from Kilometer Zero is felt),” the run also kicked off the month-long celebration of the heroism of the country’s national hero Jose Rizal and the 100th year of the installation of his monument in Rizal Park.
More than 4,000 runners started their run from the Kilometer Zero marker, fronting the Rizal monument, which was the point where Philippine independence was proclaimed in 1946. It is also the gauge and start of the measurement of distances in all places in the country.
Like Kilometer Zero, the unity run, according to Okor supreme commander Reghis Romero II, also signifies the start of a new life for the survivors and for the country as well.
“Let us return to our roots, starting from Kilometer Zero and stand as one nation as we give thanks and remember,” he said.
Romero also encouraged the participants in Sunday’s event, mostly students and government employees, to be grateful for all the help the country received after the devastation of the typhoon.
“Let us express our heartfelt gratitude as people of noble race. Rizal, a man of virtues would have done the same and would have rallied for a united movement to rise up from adversity and pay tribute to the people,” the supreme commander said.
Romero said Rizal’s spirit of empowerment could be felt throughout the country, “manifesting itself in the form of relief workers who want nothing more but to see people rise up from the wreckage.”
Race organizers said that part of the proceeds of the run would go to rehabilitation efforts in the Visayas.
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