Blogger ‘Kulas’ aids Marawi evacuees

COTABATO CITY—The Canadian travel blogger whose posts went viral for his fluent “Bisaya” started his own “psychosocial intervention” to help Maranao people traumatized by the antiterrorist assault on Marawi City, spending hours with them at a temporary shelter in Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur province.

“The evacuees fed me instead,” Kyle “Kulas” Jennermann wrote on his Facebook page. “Before I even had a chance to interact, they offered me to try some local tambis (watery rose apples) with a soy sauce/chilly dip.”

“Again, these are people who have been here living on the floor of a basketball court for almost ten days! Not once did they ever ask me to give them things … . Instead, even though they have so little, they wanted to give me something new to try!” he added.

Inspired by their resilience, Jennermann initiated a campaign to solicit toy and cash donations for the evacuees.

“I ended up realizing that toys were something that didn’t really exist in the many relief centers, so I had a toy drive in Iligan City,” he told the Inquirer by phone. “Locals brought me probably close to 2,000 various toys, and it was awesome.”

The Canadian has been traveling all over the country over the past years. His travel video blogs usually get more than half a million views.

Jennermann started posting his blogs about Mindanao while he was in Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Orientral province, where he stayed before going around the island.

A friend, Kaka Jhalainie Mala, introduced “Kulas” to his townmates, and they exchanged stories in Bisaya and Maranao languages.

Arriving in Cotabato City last week, Jennermann said he observed the sad faces of the evacuees. When he started talking, “I noticed many smiling faces, at least I made them smile,” he said.

“Now this is where it gets even more difficult,” he said. “It is actually the holy month of Ramadan right now, which means that all day long a majority of these evacuees are actually fasting.”

“Just imagine, a lot of these evacuees are tired from fasting and stuck sitting there thinking about their homes and lives in Marawi, and the pain of being hungry and fasting,” he added.

As he was about to leave, Jennermann said he heard heartbreaking words from the evacuees.

“You took away our hunger and pain just spending time with us,” he quoted one of them as saying. This almost brought him to tears, he said.

“Imagine the pain and sacrifice these people are going through … . It is incredibly difficult to comprehend,” the blogger said.