DSWD workers help Visayas quake victims cope with trauma

Social workers from the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Central Visayas and local government units in areas hit by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake are conducting initial “critical incident stress debriefing” (CISD) to victims in Bohol and Cebu. AP

MANILA, Philippines—Social workers from the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Central Visayas and local government units in areas hit by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake are conducting initial “critical incident stress debriefing” (CISD) to victims in Bohol and Cebu.

CISD is a pycho-social intervention that helps victims of disasters cope with their traumatic experiences by pouring out their feelings and fears.

Mercedita Jabagat, DSWD Central Visayas Regional director, said that DSWD personnel would go on 24-hour duty to assist affected families.

She added that trained stress debriefers would also be deployed in earthquake-hit areas to conduct psycho-social interventions to grieving families.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said the number of evacuation centers has risen to 72, providing temporary shelter to 12,976 families or 65,274 persons.

Of the total evacuation centers, 25 are in the five towns of Cebu serving 1,009 families or 5,439 persons.

Bohol, on the other hand, now has 47 evacuation centers spread in 16 towns and cities serving 11,967 families or 59,835 persons.

“We are now keeping in touch with all our local counterparts who  were trained on Family and Community Disaster Preparedness and Response with emphasis on Relief Operation, Camp Management and Coordination as well as Psycho-Social Processing (PSP)  to help us in counseling, relief and rehabilitation works,” Jabagat said.

Meanwhile, the DSWD field office in Central Visayas has partnered with the Philippine Coast Guard to deliver an estimated 10,000 family packs of relief goods to the victims in Bohol.

“The Coast Guard will depart for Bohol as soon as loading of the relief goods will be finished. The goods will then be coursed through the affected Local Government Units (LGUs),” said Jennifer Abastillas, DSWD-7 Disaster Risk Reduction Management Focal Person.

On Oct. 16, about 2,000 family packs were also airlifted to Bohol using a C-130 plane of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Each family pack contains five assorted canned goods, three kilos of rice, two to three packs of noodles and one (4-litre) drinking water.

Soliman thanked the Rotary Club of Cebu, some media personalities and other civil society groups, which donated several boxes of canned goods and noodles.

To date, a total of 51 evacuation centers opened in Bohol and Cebu catering to 6,339 families, or 37,426 individuals. There are 53 casualties from injuries.

Soliman said the DSWD-7 Quick Response Team (QRT), in coordination with the DSWD field staff, has been monitoring and retrieving data from the affected areas.

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