Preparedness, CCT program help young mom survive ‘Yolanda’

MANILA, Philippines — Learning how to keep calm during a disaster saved a young housewife in Cebu from the wrath of super typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) that struck the country last year.

The province was one of the areas affected when what most considered as the strongest storm in history made landfall on November 8, 2013.

In an article posted Tuesday in World Bank’s website, its online communications officer, Justine Espina-Letargo, narrated how young housewife “Heidi” survived “Yolanda” with the help of the disaster-preparedness training she received under the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

Word Bank is supporting the CCT program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which helped provide relief to the affected families of “Yolanda.”

Under the program, beneficiaries like Heidi also received training on disaster preparedness.

“One of the lessons I learned was to keep calm during a disaster,” Heidi said.

So when “Yolanda” happened, she said, she tried not to be affected “even though the roof of our house was blown away, and I saw houses around us being knocked down.”

Living a safe distance from shore, Heidi decided it was better to stay put in their house than venture in the storm.

The frail mother of three tearfully recalled how her children cried in fear as they sought cover under a table as strong winds and rain battered their hut for almost three hours.

“I told myself that I would show them that I was not afraid even though deep inside, I was truly scared,” she said.

Heidi reassured herself with the thought that she was sufficiently prepared for the calamity.

She took to heart the lessons in preparing a disaster kit with drinking water and ready-to-eat food like bread and bananas which helped tide them over the first few days after the typhoon.

She said she also remembered to pack a flashlight, a lamp and clothes for her children.

Days later, help started to arrive from relatives, private donors and from local government, Espina-Letargo wrote.

The author said Heidi used the cash grant she received from the program to buy sturdy canvas to cover parts of their damaged hut. Leftover canvas was used as a sleeping mat for her children.

“Because they lost almost everything they owned, she used a portion of the grant, amounting to an average of $62 dollars a month, to buy her children new pairs of slippers,” Espina-Letargo further wrote.

Heidi is just among the 3.2 million beneficiaries of the CCT program, who receive monthly cash grants for sending their children to school and undergoing health checks.

She was grateful that she and her family survived “Yoland”a which ripped through their house and the rest of their village.

Having never experienced a typhoon as strong as “Yolanda,” Heidi and her neighbors have never thought about anticipating catastrophes until she attended the session on disaster preparedness.

“Now I realize how important it is to plan in the event of a calamity,” Heidi said.