Fire victims’ kids given new uniforms, school supplies

WENIELOU Cale, 8, was playing in a neighbor’s house when she heard that their house was on fire.

She ran towards the burning house near the Butuanon River.

“I got scared when I saw our house  on fire because  my books, uniforms and siblings were inside,” she recalled.

Cale, a Grade 2 pupil at the Umapad Elementary School, said she was happy that her six siblings were safe but the family lost  all their belongings.

The Cale family was one of almost  200 families whose homes were wiped out in the  Nov. 11 fire, which hit sitio Pulang Bukid in barangay Alang-Alang in Mandaue City.

Wenielou  her mother, Teresita, and  siblings now occupy an old tent, which drips in some places during heavy rains.  Life is already hard enough after Cale’s father left the family years ago for another woman.

With Christmas near, Cale said she  wishes for a new house, toys and new school supplies and uniforms to replace those destroyed by the fire.

Her Christmas wish was partly granted after the Mandaue Hope Development Center, a foreign funded nongovernment organization, donated last Friday school supplies and  a new girl scout uniform, shoes and school bags to the children displaced by the barangay Alang-Alang fire.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mandaue City officials  led by City Councilor Demetrio “Jun” Cortes Jr. donated P20,000 worth of school supplies to 84 elementary students, who are fire victims, at the Umapad Elementary School.

Crayons, bags, erasers, rulers and pencils were among the donated items.

At least 70 students in the school were affected by the fire, said Umapad Elementary School principal Eva Barino.

On Friday, as Cale prepared to go to school in her new girl scout uniform and black shoes, she told Cebu Daily News that she was looking forward  next to having a new house.

Her mother, Teresita, said she  was grateful for the donations, and was  looking forward as well to the financial aid  promised by the Mandaue City government so that she could start buying construction materials to build their house.

Bonita Sumalinog, 40, is just as grateful.

She, too, lost all her belongings in the fire. Her son, Ivan, a Grade 6 student, hasn’t been able to go to school since the fire.

They stay in a makeshift shelter with a dirt floor, enduring leaks through the tent  and puddles that form on the floor.

They, too, await more donations from the city government. /Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos with Correspondent Fe Marie Dumaboc and STC Intern Tweeny Malinao