A private organization creatively added special touches to the Christmas Day delivery of relief goods to a Typhoon Odette hit island in Negros Occidental.
The Negrense Volunteers for Change Foundation (NVC) ferried a cotton candy machine, brought dolls and teddy bears and one lechon manok per family in addition to canned goods, rice and water that were packed in bags to Purok Alimango of Canramos Island, Binalbagan in southern Negros Occidental.
“The children were so amazed at seeing a cotton candy machine churning in their own community,” Alyne Batano, a Field Officer of NVC , said.
“Some of them thought that cotton candy is available only in the town plaza and on fiesta days, while some of the children had never even heard of cotton candy”, she said.
NVC served all the families in Purok Alimango. The island, like many parts of the province, had its share of destroyed homes and disrupted livelihood as well as poignant stories.
“I met a 15-year-old girl who pulled out a box of honor student medals from beneath their collapsed house, only to return it to the same place because there was nowhere else to keep them since they had only began to live in a makeshift shed since the storm,” Jessie Lachica, another NVC Field Officer, said.
NVC has been among the early responders among private organizations after the typhoon hit at dawn of December 17.
“Our team was on the ground just a few hours after we were hit,” Millie Kilayko, NVC president said.
“We sent a team to Taal hit areas the day after the volcano exploded, We were in Cotabato just as early. We would never have forgiven ourselves if we could not be helping on the ground faster in our own province”, she said.
To date, NVC has served 11 cities and municipalities, including all of the six in the 6th District of Negros Occidental which had been the hardest hit, delivering truckloads of rice, groceries, water and Mingo Meals, an instant nutritious complementary food for infants and toddlers made of rice, mongo and malunggay which their organization manufactures.
“We have a three-pronged response to the Typhoon Odette disaster,” Kilayko said.
“In addition to Relief, we have drafted a Rehab Program to undertake repair or rehabilitation of damaged houses. The third is Rebuilding Lives which involves primarily helping build food secure communities by assisting small farmers and fishermen through the acquisition of tools, equipment and technology”, she said.
“We are a very small organization…while we will not be able to do great things, we hope to accomplish an efficient response”, she added.
While NVC is best known for its nutrition program and emergency relief response through Mingo Meals which have been served in 53 provinces, its Peter Project has also helped provide over 5,000 motorized fishing boats, many of whom were fishermen from Eastern and Western Visayas who lost theirs to Typhoon Yolanda, Kilayko said.*