From your donations and from many other friends, we had made 1,018 bags of relief goods to be distributed to Yolanda survivors in Leyte.
As Dr. Annely Celocia put it, “You need to be emotionally strong and be prepared for what you will see.” Indeed, when she saw boys looking for food, her stomach started to churn, and she almost vomited.
During the trip, she saw steel posts wrapped around trees like bowstrings. Many people still had no shelter; they try to rebuild their houses by scrounging around for metal sheets for roof, and use the “trapal” or plastic sheets to cover roofless areas. Many people are still without food. Most of the houses standing had a few families temporarily seeking shelter.
The group arrived early dawn in Baybay, on the west coast of Leyte, and proceeded to Javier, a town where 14 students of Banilad Center for Professional Development hail from. Javier is inland and serves as a relief goods distribution point for the neighboring towns. They were welcomed by the mayor. Mrs. Beth Lopez, director of BCPD, started feeding 350 children at the market; they were fed with Chocolait and bread. Lea of BCPD started cooking for the townsfolk, and in the end about 1,000 people had lunch. They were able to give relief goods to them, too. Their Church was intact, since 2 days before the storm the people started cutting up branches from the trees, clearing those that might fall and damage the surrounding property.
There was another group that went to Burauen: it was a long way north taking the coastal road because they weren’t sure if the interior roads are passable. With a military escort, they were able to go to the interior of Burauen where relief goods would not normally reach, since it is away from the city center.
All along the ride, we noticed that most coconuts were “beheaded”. Imagine what this will mean for the livelihood of the coconut farmers.
The people were overjoyed and wanted to write a thank you letter. To our dismay, we forgot to bring ballpens and paper. But someone managed to get a pen and they wrote on the map we used to get to Burauen.
Another group went up north to Dagami and delivered relief goods. A fourth group had gone to Tolosa and Palo where relatives were waiting for provisions.
They all arrived back to Javier where they proceeded to get into the “RORO” (roll-in-roll-out boats). But the boat going to Hilongos was being repaired and the trip was cancelled, so they took the boat from Ormoc instead.