Czech Ambassador Jaroslav Olša Jr. oversees the distribution of building materials donated by Czech Republic to typhoon survivors in Camarines Sur province. —JUAN ESCANDOR JR.
NAGA CITY—For P1.9 million, more than 300 families in Camarines Sur province, who survived the wrath of Typhoon “Nina” (international name: Nock-ten) more than two months ago, will be able to rebuild their houses and start anew.
The shelter assistance, donated by the Czech Republic government through the Center for Community Development (CCD) of Ateneo de Naga University (AdNU), will help 337 families whose houses were destroyed in three villages in Bula, Ocampo and San Fernando towns.
Lilia Bomalay, 50, could hardly hold back her tears when she received the assistance consisting of galvanized iron sheets, plywood boards, coconut lumber and nails.
According to Bomalay, a resident of Barangay San Miguel in Bula, she and her two children have been living in a makeshift shelter, protected only by plastic sheets, since Nina destroyed their house on Christmas Day last year.
Czech Ambassador Jaroslav Olša Jr. and AdNU president Primitivo Viray Jr. led the distribution of the housing materials on Thursday afternoon.
Among the recipients were Agta residents in Barangay Villaflorida in Ocampo town.
Olša also gifted the beneficiary villages in Ocampo and Bula with miniature statues of Santo Niño de Prague.
Elmer Sto. Domingo, CCD director, said the villages were community partners of AdNU in its development work.
He said CCD would mobilize the community to undertake “bayanihan” to help families rebuild their houses.
Olša first visited AdNU for the launching of the Bikol-translated book of Czech writer Franz Kafka last year.
He said he was in Prague when the typhoon struck Bicol but he kept communicating with Viray to check on the situation of survivors and inquire about their needs.
“I [went] to my ministry and said, ‘OK let’s do something for those people from the region I have been; we have friends there,’” Olša said. —JUAN ESCANDOR JR.