Celebrating community resilience six years after Typhoon Haiyan

RE-Charge Pilipinas facility, Tacloban City
November 5, 2019
PHOTOS: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJodhs4

“Nothing could have prepared us for the magnitude and the strength of Yolanda.” – Rectito Melquiades, focal person of Guiuan Recovery and Sustainable Development Group for Resilience (GRSDGR) and Sangguniang Bayan secretary 

In the morning of November 8, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, made landfall in Guiuan, Eastern Samar.  The Category 5 typhoon destroyed homes, livelihoods and took away the lives of thousands of people. The tragedy also elicited an outpouring of community support and solidarity to the affected areas. In the succeeding years, the will to thrive from those affected was witnessed under the “new climate normal.” 

In commemoration of that fateful day, an open house event was hosted by Aksyon Klima in the RE-Charge Pilipinas facility in Tacloban for changing the narrative to celebrate the efforts of the survivor communities to grow their economies, protect the environment and strengthen their communities, despite the challenges brought about by climate change. It was to recognize the efforts at disaster risk reduction and adaptation to impacts of extreme weather events and slow onset impacts of climate change from the Haiyan Corridor in the form of storytelling and art. Present in the event were local government representatives from provinces of Leyte, Eastern and Western Samar, and Palawan, civil society organizations and networks, people’s organizations, women’s organizations, member-based groups, and representatives from the Coron Resilience Network (CRN) and Guiuan Recovery and Sustainable Development Group for Resilience (GRSDGR) who shared about their respective Climate Change Adaptation Framework (CCAF) experience. 

Tying the stories in cooperation is key to resilience work realized through an inclusive platform stakeholders, including the private sector, who can collaborate and set the course of recovery and development. The CCAF allows the integration of climate risks and impacts to assessment of priority systems of interest, enabling the stakeholders to prioritize and roll out key strategies, programs and projects with a resource mobilization plan to ensure sustainability of the initiatives. Guiuan, Salcedo, Marabut, Iloilo (Carles, Concepcion and Estancia) and Coron prove to be strong cases of this approach. Technical assistance and funding from partner organizations such as Cordaid proved pivotal in making the huge task of recovery and development easier, and has continued the partnership many years after Haiyan. The event also reiterated the fact that women have played a crucial role in building community resilience whether as community leaders, advocates, facilitators, project implementers, solar scholars and social entrepreneurs.

With the involvement of multi-partners at all levels (CSOs, local authorities and the community) from risk assessment, problem identification, to project designing. planning, programming and implementing action, it assures efficiency and effectiveness in  addressing the needs for Disaster Preparedness, Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience. – Emmanuel Areño, Executive Director, Iloilo CODE NGOs (I-CODE)

Along with their milestones, the exchanges surfaced that a lot remains to be done moving forward for these communities. The LGU representatives admitted the need to step up by learning new frameworks such as the DRR-CCAM, and applying new ways of doing work like convergence strategies to build back better in the course of the Haiyan recovery and rehabilitation efforts. Participants from Sulu-an island, Marabut, and Salcedo pointed out that there is an urgent need for local level scientific researches to address climate change impacts, particularly SOEs, and to guide development and adaptation planning.

‘TINDOG’ which is the translation for “rise up” in Waray, radiated during the candlelight ceremony as the message of hope that the event and the attendees wanted to impart to others, before feasting on local survival staple food and dishes with a sip of aged local wine during the boodle fight which ended the event with a celebratory tone.