With families still sheltering in temporary evacuation centres, concern about the long-term impact of Typhoon Ketsana on people’s livelihoods grows, Laura Eldon reports.

How do you cope when rising floodwater forces you to flee your home with only what you can carry? Well if you’re one of the any number of people I’ve spent time talking to these last few days, you pick yourself up and just keep on going.

It’s been quite a humbling experience meeting families who have been sheltering in temporary evacuation centres ever since the terrible floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana wiped away their homes. Everyone has a story to tell of rising water levels and lost belongings. But despite the cramped and difficult conditions they find themselves living in, people rarely volunteer complaints. Instead everywhere I walk I’m greeted with cries of “Thank you ma’am”, and seeing my staff jacket, “Thank you Oxfam!”

I met 43-year-old Lery waiting in line to take part in a distribution organised by Oxfam at an evacuation centre set up round a church in Laguna province. She tells me how swirling waters washed her house away when the typhoon came and how she and her family managed to escape with little more than the clothes on their back. Sheltering first in a nearby school, they were moved to St Peter and Paul Parish Church to make way for the pupils when lessons started back up.

As she welcomes me into her shelter, a small lean-to made from items she and her husband could salvage from where their home used to be, I’m struck by how immaculately clean and tidy everything is. A few cooking utensils borrowed from neighbours are stacked neatly on a small counter, while some sheets lie folded on a raised platform used as a bed. Lery’s husband used to work as a construction labourer before the typhoon, but since then much of the work has dried up. He’s been travelling around the area looking for temporary work as a fisherman to earn a few pesos for his family.

“We’ve been living on handouts for the last month, ever since the typhoon came,” Lery tells me as her nephew plays in the corner, stacking the bars of soap she received earlier from the distribution of hygiene kits. “We can’t go home as our house was washed away. Even when the water recedes, our biggest problem will be finding the money to rebuild. It’s very difficult living here but what can we do? We’ve got no choice.”

Across the centre, Paulino and his family used to own a catfish pond with around 5,000 fingerlings. Every three-month harvest, they’d earn between 15,000–20,000 pesos (£215–£280), but when the typhoon hit, floodwater washed away the pond and all their investment.

“I’m waiting for the water to recede and trying to save some money so that I can start a new catfish pond,” Paulino tells me. “It will take a long time, but I have no other choice – no money lender will lend me the kind of capital I need to start up again.”

In the meantime the family are depending upon small casual labour jobs to keep themselves afloat. Even then, things are difficult. Paulino’s daughter Grace used to work at the local market as a fish vendor, but has found jobs scarce since the typhoon hit. Fewer people have money to spend at the market, so there’s less work going around anymore.

Concerned about the long-term impact of the typhoon on people’s livelihoods, Oxfam is planning a series of cash grants to provide the capital for families to restart their businesses and purchase the materials and equipment they lost in the floods. We’re also distributing hygiene kits and building temporary latrines to help improve facilities for evacuees.

With floodwater levels remaining high, it looks unlikely that any of the 500 families staying at this centre will be able to return home anytime soon. Yet despite the challenges they face, everyone I meet here waves me off with a smile and a flurry of thanks and good wishes that will stay with me for a long time. We’ll be doing what we can over the coming months to help people begin the slow process of getting their lives back to normal.

Find out more: Oxfam’s response to Typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines

Philippines emergency response photostory

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Tags: east asia, east asia disasters, east asia disasters appeal, floods, philippines, philippines floods

This entry was posted by Laura Eldon on October 30th, 2009 at 9:44 am 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.