Psychosocial interventions start for Naga victims

PSYCHOSOCIAL interventions for women and children evacuees, who were affected in the massive landslide last Thursday in Barangay Tinaan, Naga City, have already started.

“We have now established women-friendly spaces and children- friendly spaces in the evacuation centers for the psychosocial activities of landslide victims,” said Leah Quintana, information officer of Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7) in an interview on Sunday.

Quintana was referring to specified areas for thousands of landslide affected evacuees specifically women and children in eight evacuation centers in Naga City.

The evacuation centers are namely: Enan Chiong Activity Center (ECAC), Naalad Elementary School and Apo Cemex covered court,Naga Central School,Naga National High School,Colon Elementary School,San Fernando Complex and Mormons Church in Naga City and Minglanilla town.

“We ensure that all evacuation centers are fully capable of holding child-friendly spaces which provide services such as play and art therapy, psychosocial counseling, supplementary feeding, games, and educational activities to relieve the stress of children due to displacement because of disasters,” she said.

The establishment of the child and women-friendly spaces in evacuation centers is in accordance to Republic Act No. 10821 or the Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act which ensures that children and pregnant and lactating mothers are ensured of protection before, during, and after the occurrence of a calamity or disaster.

For the Naga City evacuees, the psychosocial interventions had been conducted since last Friday or a day after the tragedy and the DSWD-7 had coordinated with Philippine Association of Social Workers Inc. and Mary Help of Christian School in Minglanilla town for these activities.

“Last Friday, we’ve started the activity, wherein children are engaged in storytelling. We’ve let them draw in order for them to express their feelings and they were allowed to play with other kids,” she said.

Based on the monitoring of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) in Naga City, they’ve recorded around 1,341 families that were evacuated or 4,984 individuals.

They’ve also accounted for 1,292 children staying in different evacuation centers, 6 persons with disability (PWDs), 209 senior citizens and 14 pregnant women.

Meanwhile, Quintana said that they would also continue their efforts to provide family food packs to evacuees.

“DSWD-7 has allocated 10,000 family food packs for landslide victims in Naga city,” she said.

The family food packs contain six kilos of rice, eight canned goods and six sachets of coffee which is good for two days for a family of five.

The department has also distributed P25,000 burial assistance to the families of the 11 casualties in the incident.

She also said that they were still assessing the families of the other casualties and they would eventually get their burial assistance.