No Time like Now to Prepare! [Philippines]
It has been almost two weeks since the catastrophic Kahramanmaras Earthquake hit Türkiye and Syria on February 6 this year. The death toll has exceeded 40,000 and relief operations are still ongoing in the area. SEEDS Asia cannot help but feel the pain to see whole neighborhoods reduced to rubble, and witness families, especially children, crying in the news.
SEEDS Asia had received a number of inquiries from its network members asking, “Will you provide emergency assistance for the Türkiye-Syria earthquake?” Every time we are asked such questions, we answer that we are not planning to provide immediate emergency support to the affected areas at this time, but we would consider being involved when the situation moves to the post-disaster reconstruction and recovery phase.
This is because we believe that an important project criteria for us to plan emergency support after a disaster is the availability of a local counterpart who can participate in our projects and continue the work after the project period has been completed. We usually plan to provide support that takes longer-term recovery and resilience issues into account, including the culture and situation in the area, and without affecting ongoing rescue and relief operations.
To achieve this, we believe that we need a strong local counterpart who can partner with us to implement projects. Identifying such partners for longer-term recovery efforts will be important to ensure that local communities benefit from the project components, and partners and other local stakeholders are fully capacitated to handle future risks.
This was brought home to us recently when the Philippines also experienced a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Davao last month and a 6.0 magnitude one in Masbate on February 16. There were a number of news reports on the earthquakes:
Earthquake Today: 6.0 Magnitude Quake Rocks Masbate
Damage in coliseum, hospital evacuation reported after Masbate quake | GMA News Online
One of our project partners in the Philippines, Ms. Ma. Elena Berame, Division DRRM Coordinator of Lapu-Lapu City Division, Department of Education Region VII, informed us, “We provided disaster risk reduction education (DRRE) training for children using SEEDS Asia’s materials!” The teaching materials consist of board games for children to learn about disaster preparedness in a fun and entertaining way. These board games were developed by SEEDS Asia and provided as a part of the project, “Capacity Building on Disaster Risk Reduction Education through Cooperation with Local Community in Cebu Province”, which was implemented between 2014 and 2017. When we recently read the news related to the Philippines earthquakes, we sincerely hoped that our project strategies and training enabled Ms. Ma. Elena and others to be better prepared in schools, and to remove the anxieties that children face during calamities.
When we think of the earthquake’s devastation in Türkiye and Syria and the social contexts which have worsened the situation in the area, there are not enough words to describe how desolate we feel. On the other hand, we will always face the possibility of experiencing earthquakes in the future. And we always need to provide longer-term support to affected areas to reduce the affected communities’ anxiety – if we learn to arm ourselves with DRRE resources and strategies, and practice it now, as Ms. Ma. Elena did.
DRRE helps reassure vulnerable people with the lessons learned on how to protect themselves and minimize damage. It can also contribute to a more disaster-resilient community.
No time like now to prepare for disasters!