Lottie the volunteer's BLOG

KC By: Lottie Salarda Tacloban City, Philippines – Fetching a jug of water for others in the NHA bunkhouses for 10 pesos has been Kristia Camille Oliver’s means in sustaining her daily meals. She is 13 years old. She formerly lives in Brgy Palanog, Tacloban City. She lost her mother during typhoon Yolanda. Of the 4 siblings, only one of them is now attending school with the help of her relatives. Her father had just got married and left them to live in Manila with his new family.  KC, as she was often called by her friends, stopped her schooling since she transferred to the bunkhouse. She strives each day to have some food to eat together with her friends who are also out of school youth. She lived in any unit of the bunkhouses where they find comfort to sleep. Like her friends, the only wish she wanted for Christmas is to go back to school. Supposedly this year she is in her grade 8, but because of the abandonment of his father, she then have no choice b...

Our coconuts; our source of life By: Lottie Salarda      I was born in a small village of Leyte town here in Eastern Visayas. I spent my childhood there. Until such time that I studied in Tacloban City and found work. I spend more than 10 years in that City. It is the City where we, from the hinterlands, find a work opportunity. The minimum wage is only 260 pesos. Many of my co-villagers in my age tried to find opportunity outside of our town. Our livelihoods were mostly on coconut farming. We depend on it.       For many years, many of them depends their lives out of what they’ve got in their tenancy. Although we have vegetable gardens, our lives still depend on coconuts. Most of them weren’t able to finish even high school or college. They work honestly and with dignity. They live simple lives. Until typhoon Yolanda came and destroyed not only their coconut trees but also their lives. We’ve lost our livelihoods. Coconut farmers have j...

Pokwang in one of her scenes in the movie By: Lottie Salarda I love reading books and watching movies. These are my favorite things to do when I am not busy. To relax my mind after the deadliest exams, I decided to buy downloaded movies in downtown Tacloban for twenty pesos each. Since I love watching comedy movies, especially local movies, I picked up Pokwang’s movie entitled “Edsa Woolworth”. For me, Pokwang is one of the best comedians in our Philippine cinema. I have watched her movies in the past and she never fails to amaze me in her talent to make people laugh. But when I started watching the movie, I realized that it is not a comedy, but a beautiful drama. Pokwang played as Edsa Woolworth who resides in California together with her siblings Bonifacio, and Paco their youngest. All of them nursed their stepfather Frank, who is an American citizen. Their mother Mercedes married Frank whey they were still in their young age. Mercedes died seven years ago. Frank...

By: Lottie Salarda The idea of making Humans of Haiyan came last August this year. I knew that time that I will take my 2 months review for the bar exams on September and October, and that means I won’t be able to write a story on the 2 nd year anniversary of typhoon Haiyan on November 8. Before I left Tacloban City, I traveled around the region to gather twenty-four personal life stories of the survivors. I made only twenty-four because I intended each of them to represent the twenty-four months after the disaster. In the middle of my review, I took some time to do some edits and print it using a part of my review budget. I had printed it because I want their stories to be preserved and remembered. I want to know how they are coping with their situation two years later. This is not only a collection of sad stories but also an inspiration, hopes, and dreams. The twenty-four survivors have their own stories to tell. And their stories are the living manifestation th...

School children play after classes By: Lottie Salarda Tacloban City—it’s been more than two years since the strongest typhoon hit the Eastern part of the Philippines on November 8, 2013. It killed thousands of people, destroyed properties and lost the livelihoods of the poor farmers. Billions of dollars were donated by many countries to help us bring back our lives into normalcy. Our government received more than enough to rebuild the school buildings and other infrastructures that the typhoon has devastated. For more than one year I’ve worked as a researcher in a non-governmental organization that advocates renewable energy. I travelled a lot most of the time to have my research all over the region. In each Municipality I went through, I noticed that those school buildings that were located along the National Highway were all rehabilitated for less than a year. Is there a pattern? I asked myself. A community in Palo, Leyte has more than enough school classroom...

  Arman Librea, Palo Leyte, 44 years old,  fishpond care taker, Brgy San Joaquin Palo, Leyte (Photo by: Humans of Haiyan)  “Sa pagpikit ko sa mga mata ko tuwing gabi, naririnig ko pa rin ang tawag ng mga anak ko na “papa,papa”. Maaring may bahay na nga ako, pero kahit kalian hindi ito magiging kumpleto kasi wala na ang buong pamilya ko.” by: Lottie Salarda “Sabi nila ang mga anak daw ay ang pinaka importanteng yaman ng mga magulang. ” Their smiles, giggles, and playful attitudes give us an inspiration in each day to work hard for their future. Parents spend their whole time rearing their children. But what if your family died in an instant leaving you no chances of saving them? It has been two years since the strongest storm struck the province of Leyte and the rest of Samar provinces. It killed thousands of people and destroyed millions of properties. Thousands of them were still missing and some of them are innocent children who didn’t know how t...

Tacloban City Two months from now the 2 nd year anniversary for typhoon Yolanda will be commemorated. Maybe a majority of the Yolanda survivors have just started picking up the pieces of their lives back. A stranger might see the road repairs, building new classrooms, hospitals and all along the national highway wherever he may be as he steps into the soil of this province. He/she might wonder why people still demand fo help in repairing their homes when in fact he/she has seen a lot of changes by way of new constructions. It is because the reason that the government has abandoned us early last year when the people needed the help and hope from his government.  Think about this: Vietnam and Thailand government through the DSWD Region 8 have donated a thousand sacks of rice according to the Philippine Ports Authority, but nothing have been given to the survivors of typhoon Yolanda. What has been given instead is NFA rice? Where are the imported sacks of ric...

Roberta Tismo, 71 years old, of Brgy Camansihay, Tacloban City lives in a makeshift almost two years after Yolanda. The senior citizen is one of the most neglected sectors in the society. Under the Philippine laws, this sector has given priorities for the program intended for the welfare of all senior citizens especially those who are poorest of the poor. Republic Act 9994 laid down the rules on how the senior citizens through an organized association will able to avail the .5% of the 1% budget from the IRA of their City, municipality or brgy. There were also laws that provide 20% discounts for their transportation, food when they eat at restaurants, medicines, hospitalization, groceries and others. But most of these privileges were only availed of those who have the capacity of eating in big restaurants and other services that most of the poorest of the poor cannot be able to avail. I meet Roberta Tismo, 71 years old of Brgy Camansihay, Tacloban City. She has...

Days after the State of the Nation Address of President Aquino, UN special rapporteur Chaloka Beyani made a remarks that the government had done not enough for the homeless Haiyan survivors in Visayas. Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez was not surprised by the UN report. He said that it is because the priorities are not there and he based his assessment on what has been happening in the past. After almost two years, the situation of the people especially those who were still living in the bunkhouses and temporary shelters are not okay. “That was confirmed by the observers coming from the different pa rts of the world who have no ulterior motive but just report on what they see. So it’s not a question of a blame game to anyone, it’s a question of doing about it, ” said Romualdez . Earlier, the National government through the DPWH released a project plan for the construction of 27.3-kilometer stretch steel and concrete wall in Tacloban, Palo and Tanauan. The project...

The moon and the sun The two shines in their own way at their own time. They come from the east and west. The sun is happy shining at its brightest. But he feels incomplete because he wants to shine together with Moon. He frowned, but he continued his life for the people who need him. On the other hand, the moon also wishes to be with Sun. She was excited in every morning that comes. But when Sun was rising, she eventually disappears. They were born apart. They never meet in their entire lives. Soon the moon and the sun realized that they were never meant to be.

It was raining hard, the wind was blowing to the east and west, the night was dark, little floods in the streets were already forming, when local and national officials conducted a DRR meeting at the function hall of the Police Regional Office 8 on November 7, 2013. We, from the media, headed to the same location to cover the event. Our mobile patrol was then shaking because of the strong winds that were blowing. The rain entered the vehicle that made us all wet. We arrived at the meeting around 7:00 in the evening. The meeting has started and I saw the Mayor of Tacloban, Governor of Leyte, the heads of the AFP, PNP, BFP,  DND Sec. Gazmin and DILG Roxas. At that meeting, the representative coming from PAGASA (Regional Office) was not present. Mar Roxas called the representative twice, but there was none. The meeting proceeded without any weather update from the authority. That was the last time that I saw Roxas here in Tacloban City. He even ordered for a fin...

Knowing about renewable energy has never been part of my life before the month of February last 2014 when Veejay, the famous photographer, introduced me to the Executive Director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, sir Red Constantino. On that meeting, they are discussing the RE-Charge project, the building of a solar facility where the electric jeepneys will be plugged in for charging and soon will run in downtown Tacloban. I was clueless that time on what are those things. Wahahaha pictorial with Veejay.  I just introduced myself and smiled. I was so nervous that I couldn’t eat my meals that have been served soon after we arrived from a long distance travel. They were looking for a Tacloban based staff that time. Sir Red told me to send my resume’ and application letter via e-mail. I did. There were lots of non-governmental organizations in Tacloban City helping the relief and rehabilitation of the communities which have been devastated by typhoon Yo...

No build-zone builders in Tacloban City I admit and never denied that I was not a graduate of Journalism or any related course therein. Yes! I am new in this industry. I just learned my news writing skills over the emails of my interaksyon.com editors. I have saved it on my folders and read it carefully. I just studied the code of ethics on the internet.  There were many challenges that I have faced in this job as a community journalist. Last year, I was able to write a story on the trucks of rotten and expired relief goods dumped into the dump site in Palo, Leyte. When I received the information, I immediately leave my classes and verify the information. I went to the Brgy where the dump site was located. There I was able to interview the scavengers living near the area and proved that they got relief packs, biscuits, noodles, canned goods and others from the dump site. They said there were trucks that have dumped the relief packs and covered by a pile of garba...

Editha Azores, Tinambacan Coconut Farmers Association President  during the Press conference yesterday In a small press conference held on Tuesday here in Tacloban City, the group of small farmers expressed their dismay over the government neglect they experienced almost two years after the storm. The municipality of Burauen, Leyte was one of the biggest producers of coconuts in the region. Rowel Aralar, Patong Coconut Farmers Association President says that the government had only prioritized the rice farmers, but they have neglected to see the real situation of the small coconut farmers after the devastation. “Mabuti pa ang mga magpapalay ay merong tulong ng gobyerno, pero kaming mga magniniyog wala hanggang ngayon,” said Aralar. The coconut farmers from the towns of Kananga, Burauen and Jaro joined forces to express their sentiments over the slow rehabilitation process of the government to the affected coconut farmlands in the region. “Napakalaki ng d...