Oxfam is responding to the urgent needs of 25,500 women, men and children most affected by Typhoon Ketsana in Vietnam. Nguyen Hoang Yen reports on the difficulties of an Oxfam emergency distribution.

My colleague Hue and I sat in the cabin of the truck, trying hard to keep still on the hard seats as the truck full of rice inched along the bumpy road. We were on the way to Dak Ro Ong village in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam to distribute rice to Typhoon-affected villagers there.

Dak Ro Ong and other villages of the Tu Mo Rong district were among the areas hardest hit by Typhoon Ketsana, which struck the Central Highlands Kon Tum region and 13 others in Vietnam on 29 September. Oxfam has been working in this district and Dak Glei, the two most affected districts of Kon Tum.

It was not for easy for the rice to make it this far. Since many roads in the district remained badly damaged, the delivery caused enormous amounts of extra work.

For Dak Ro Ong in particular, as the typhoon floods had washed away the bridge linking the main road - this was the only way for the rice to cross the river. Holding on tight, I could not help gasping in awe at the views along the bumpy road. Contrasting with the raw red soil mountain’s wounds – the result of the landslides – were the green and yellow patches of rice, still promising a light harvest for farmers whose fields were not affected. Little houses hid under shades of garden fruit trees. Here and there a traditional stilt house appeared with tall pointed thatched roof. Children walking home from morning class along the muddy red soil road smiled, shouted hello and waved to us.

We made it to a community centre in Dak Ro Ong aching from the rough ride. While we grasped a hot bowl of noodle soup, a luxury for us all at this time, some male villagers helped to unload the rice to the storage room.

As villagers started to arrive, a table was set up next to the store room, which was now stacked up full with bags and bags of rice. The distribution began. Villagers were called one by one. Each showed their residency registration book for the team to double check the number of beneficiaries. Then they signed on two different forms for us to keep record. Some put their finger-prints in the form as they could not write.

White bags started to speed away from the centre, some on motorbikes, but most of them on people’s backs, mainly women’s. Despite having to carry the heavy bags, everybody kept smiling.

I tried to make conversation on their way out. Some were too shy to speak, while some only said a few words in their ethnic ‘Se Dang’ language.

 

Y Phi, a 30-year-old mother of two told me her house was washed away together with 20 bags of rice of 50kg each - all of their savings from the last crop. Her family has been sharing the house with a relative since the Typhoon. She was very happy to receive the extra support.

As the team helped the last group of villagers with their share, the truck returned with more goods – dried fish, fish sauce, blankets and mosquito nets, resting on top of tons and tons of rice for two communities beyond Dak Ro Rong. I felt relieved. The team’s hard work had paid off as villagers affected by the Typhoon were able to benefit from Oxfam support. 

Yen’s Oxfam in Typhoon-affected Vietnam photostory

Oxfam in Typhoon Ketsana-affected Vietnam

Tags: east asia disasters, east asia disasters appeal, vietnam

This entry was posted by Nguyen Thi Hoang Yen on October 27th, 2009 at 5:35 pm and is filed under General, Humanitarian, News Blog, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.