Kids join relief volunteers

Jed Carmona, 7, helps prepare food packs for typhoon evacuees. DORIS C. BONGCAC/INQUIRER VISAYAS

CEBU CITY—Seven-year-old Jed Carmona had to jump to reach for the sando bag with the logo of the Department of the Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

He barely spoke as he put eight tins of sardines into the plastic bag because he had a goal in mind: He wanted to hit 1 million food packs before going home in the afternoon.

Jed, of Barangay Guadalupe here, was the youngest of the 300 volunteers who chose to spend their cold and rainy Sunday at the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City repacking relief goods for victims of Typhoon “Ruby” (international name: Hagupit) in Eastern Visayas.

Jed went with his mother Nadz at the CICC, which the DSWD had designated as its repacking hub.

“He (Jed) cried when I was about to leave home because he wanted to come with me and help pack [relief],” said Nadz, an employee at the DSWD Central Visayas office.

The boy declined to be interviewed. He instead focused on counting the tins of sardines to ensure that he had the right number in each plastic bag.

Food packages

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman led the repacking of relief goods, each bag containing 6 kilos of rice, eight tins of sardines, eight tins of either corned beef or beef loaf, eight packs of instant noodles and eight sachets of coffee, all worth P518.

Each pack would take care of a family’s food needs for the next two to three days.

Walk-in volunteers started arriving at 9 a.m. on Sunday. They were given a quick briefing on what to put in the bags before being given actual assignments.

For Jed, his assignment was to put eight tins of sardines in the plastic bag.

The CICC basement was subdivided into storage and packing areas. Tables were provided for those packing food assistance.

One table was for packing rice and another was for packing canned goods and sachets of coffee.

The DSWD said there were about 300 volunteers, including students and Coast Guard personnel.

Compassion for the victims

Ten-year-old Kia Franzine Carbon from Barangay Tayud in Consolacion town, northern Cebu, was in charge of the plastic bags that would contain the relief goods.

“I wanted to help because I feel pity for the typhoon victims,” she said.

Franzine and her parents Angie and Agapito arrived at the CICC about 9 a.m. on Sunday. She hopped from one table to another to open the bags that were used for packing rice.

In some instances, Franzine would stay beside her mother, who was in charge of putting 6 kilos of rice in the plastic bags.

“I volunteered because I wanted to know what it feels like to be helping. I also wanted to make myself useful as a thanksgiving because we were spared from the wrath of Typhoon Ruby,” Angie said.

She said she left her younger daughter, Xyra, 8, in the care of her mother, Antonia, 62.

Nanie Gonzaga, administrator of My Home, a center in Consolacion town that caters to children who had run-ins with the law, brought 11 of the shelter’s clients to the CICC to introduce them to community work.

Gonzaga said the children’s help was also a form of thanksgiving because Cebu was spared from the typhoon.

“Maybe God intentionally spared us from the typhoon because if Cebu was also affected, who else would pack the food assistance?” Gonzaga said. With Carine Asutilla, Inquirer Visayas