Crying from help from the slums
By Shirley T. Kimmayong, HEA Communications Specialist

Members of the Philippine Coast Guard loaded World Vision relief packs onto a helicopter, and distributed them victims of Ketsana such as Juliet and her family. Photo by Juan Miguel Lago, World Vision Philippines.

“Please help, we’re drowning. Please help,” shouts Juliet Acantilado, 28, living in one of the slums in Karangalan village, Cainta, Rizal.

Juliet’s cry for help was heard in many villages by people clinging for their own lives. Desperation filled the air as flood waters steadily crept up towards the roves of the slum homes.

Typhoon Ketsana brought extreme rainfall, resulting in widespread flooding that affected 80 % of Metro Manila and nearby provinces, killing 240 people and displacing nearly a half a million.

“At first my children were enjoying playing in the floodwater then suddenly it was up to their chin, nearly drowning them,” she said. The rapid torrents of water charged through the community when a nearby river overflowed.

Grabbing her three children with the help of her husband, Juliet started shouting while swimming towards their neighbour’s house which had a second storey for them to evacuate to. “We grabbed whatever small belongings we had. My first priority was our safety,” said Juliet.

For two days, Juliet and her family waited for the floodwaters to subside. She says she was filled with dread when she thought of the damage done to their home, only 4 square metres in size, scraped together with pieces of scrap wood and old tin sheets. 

When the water retreated Juliet said, “I stared in disbelief at what had been our house.  It looked like a heap of garbage, as though it was part of a dirty volcanic mudflow.” Her family had been living there for ten years after moving from another slum area in Metro Manila.

Juliet and her family lived within the community of another ten families in the area. She said, “Though we live in slums where there is no electricity or available toilet, we had a house to sleep in.”

The family said they have been asked to leave but with no other place to go, they have remained. The area is prone to flooding and disease but Juliet says there is no alternative. She has no job and her husband works as a barber earning less than  US $10 a day.

Staring back with such sad, despairing eyes, she said, “We have no money, no food, no water and our clothing and my child’s educational materials are all wet and muddy. How are we going to survive? Where are we going to stay with our children?”

“Your assistance is so timely. The water has subsided. World Vision is the first group to come and help us.  Your food aid will tie us over for a few days. We badly need this. Hopefully another group will come,” said Juliet as she touched her shorts which she has been wearing for three days now.

World Vision’s food aid consists of rice, several kinds of canned goods, a pack of coffee and water amongst other items.

“I hope someday we will have our own house and will no longer need to ask food from our neighbours,” she said.

Juliet is among the recipients in her village who received the relief goods. To date, World Vision Philippines has already distributed 986 food and non-food items to nearly five thousand people. World Vision is targeting assistance for 20,000 families or 100,000 people in Marikina, Pasig, Cainta and Rizal.