Meeting of the Committee Heads of the RDRRAC Network - December 20, 2011

1. Documentation of Victims outside the evacuation centers

It has been reported and then confirmed that many victims of the disasters who opted not to come to the evacuation centers are unaccounted because government data are mostly coming from those reported in the evacuation centers. Many of the victims who staff and are coming from the communities of our networks and partner organizations are the evidences of this dilemma. When they are not documented and part of the government listings, they will not surely receive support from institutions both government and private agencies.

2. Documentation of specific needs both immediate and longterm of communities of the partners including members of peoples organizations and staff of partners institutions.

3. Resource mobilization within the local, national and international partners: financial resource, material, technical, personnel, facilities

4. Mobilization of partners and networks throughout Mindanao: human resource, technical, material, finance, transportation facilities

5. Data validation/Updating

Regular updating of information and data which include the extent of damage, death toll, missing, ongoing efforts

6. Setting-up of Management Structure

Since RDRRAC is a network of NGOs and POs in Iligan City and Lanao del Norte, its network within the area and the partners coming from other parts of Mindanao are mobilize to help manage the relief operation, data gathering and validation, and other specific activities. There are committees set-up within the network including the establishment of command center, identification of personnel and communication lines.

RDRRAC Network Coordination Meeting

Iligan City – Ranaw Disaster Response and Rehabilitation Assistance Center, Inc. (RDDRAC, Inc.) and its network NGO’s convened on December, 20, 2011 to assess the status of the victims of Typhoon Sendong (international name,”Washi”) and to define the necessary interventions for the affected people in the communities and evacuation centers. Updating on the numbers of the affected families and individuals in and out of the evacuation centers was also conducted.

During this meeting, RDRRAC Volunteers discovered that:

1. Not all affected families and individuals are in the evacuation centers. They are hosted either by their relatives and friends. Some are renting rooms at hotels and lodging houses while others opted to stay to their devastated houses. Other IDP’s are also visible in over passes in nearby schools or along highways;

2. Access to goods and services for home and community-based dependents are very limited;

3. Some evacuation centers are no longer habitable due to the poor sanitation which is harmful for the health of the evacuees;

4. Other evacuation centers can no longer accommodate the evacuees and some are forced to stay in an open space making them vulnerable to harm;

5. Lack of medical attention and services. There are evacuees who suffer from headache, skin disease, stomachache, cough and fever, and diarrhea.

6. There are unorganized distributions of goods and poor management of evacuation centers;

8. Lives, houses and infrastructures were damaged mainly by logs and rocks from the country sides; and

9. Many evacuation centers have poor and no systematic filing system especially on the sorting out of data as to gender, age, etc. Classification is seen important to address the special and specific needs of the evacuees especially the infants, children, and women inside the evacuation camps.
As of December 20, 2011, according to the (CDRRMC) data there are already 11,346 11 affected families, more than 45,000 suvivors , 283 casualties and 406 are still missing.

35 Braved to Volunteer

Iligan City – Ranaw Disaster Response and Rehabilitation Center, Inc. (RDDRAC, Inc.) bunched over thirty-five (35) active volunteers to respond to the victims of Typhoon Sendong that badly struck the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro in Northern Mindanao.

These volunteers come from different areas of Iligan City, Cotabato City, Marawi City, Agusan Province, Surigao, and Lanao del Norte. They are enthused to do all works like documentation, relief goods packaging, writing letters and appeals, resource generation, and many more.

“We are very overwhelmed by their help because we alone can impossibly finish the piles of works. Others expressed their inability to personally volunteer but have donated money and goods”, said by Ms. Ching Borres, a Staff of RDRRAC.

The institution is still expecting a number of concerned people to storm at their door to volunteer. Ms. Adona Orquillas, the Executive Director of RDRRAC, appeals for more hands undertake tasks such as relief goods packaging, documentation, goods distribution, and resource generation.

RDRRAC is still open for volunteers and donations to reach out especially the victims who are not afforded by relief goods and services.

Typhoon Sendong, claiming the lives of 992 people, is now hailed as the most destructive storm ever to hit the country in the last twelve years.