Not just houses but holistic communities

This was emphasized by Fr. Charles Jayme, head of the Cebu Archdiocese Relief and Rehabilitation unit during a press conference last Monday at the Archbishop’s residence in Cebu City.

Fr. Jayme is the point person of the local Archdiocese in helping Yolanda victims in northern Cebu cope with the devastating psychological and physical damage wrought by the supertyphoon. The trauma as a result of massive loss of lives, destruction of dwellings and livelihood in one fell swoop defy description or even calculation.

However, a year or so after the tragedy, there are positive signs that give cheer and more meaning to our celebration of Christmas this year.

The Archdiocesan Relief and Rehab unit works closely with the National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and Caritas International which is based in Rome.  The Church is partial to a holistic strategy, one that not only focus on building new settlements, but rather new and resilient communities including programs that give importance to care for the environment, promotion of hygiene and sanitation and livelihood projects through the basic unit of the Church known as the Basic Ecclessial Communities (BECs).

Fr. Jayme called the strategy a participatory program that underlines voluntary involvement or sharing, a three-year program that will see completion in 2016.

The beneficiaries of Caritas Village in Hagnaya, San Remigio town were presented during the press conference and it was heartwarming to see Jennifer Verano hug Archbishop Jose Palma after he handed her the key to her new house in the Caritas Village.

Verano didn’t pay a single centavo to acquire the unit, but it didn’t come free either.  Her equity came in the form of 400 hours helping construct the house through tasks that matched her capability.

Assuming she contributed 8 hours a day, she accomplished the equity in 2 months-time, more or less.  Or if she had to juggle her time between the project and house chores, she could have made it in 4 to 5 months.  Whatever it is, I can only equate this kind of equity as one that is a conscious act of both body and soul.

The same participatory module will be adopted in Caritas Villages in Bantigue, Daanbantayan, Tacop in San Remigio and soon in Bungtod in Bogo City.

The livelihood component of the different Caritas villages in northern Cebu is being handled by Fr. Socrates Saldua.  The Archdiocese has distributed 153 units of motorized bancas complete with fishing equipment to families living in northern Cebu’s fishing villages.  Meanwhile, beneficiaries living in inner towns are encouraged to engage in vermiculture, hollow-blocks making and livestock-raising to insure sustainability of their communities.

I heard that Fr. Soc is a believer of co-operatives and he is tapping the assistance of a highly successful co-operative based in Tandag, Surigao del Sur to help beneficiaries.  I certainly think this is a step in the right direction.  Co-operatives enable people to help themselves first, after which they learn to help one another through the practical virtues of honesty, hard work and perseverance.

Where do local government units come in the Church’s recovery and rehabilitation efforts?  The lgus’ involvement is significant, through the grant of settlement lots.  But in the sense that it is the Church which journeys with the people, that is, living closely with them, the civil government has yielded to the Church the most important task of enabling our people to regain hope, recover their lives and go back to mainstream society and become useful citizens.

Monday’s event reminded me of a conversation I had with my suki manicurista who told me that a few days before Typhoon Ruby threatened the Visayas and finally barreled into northern and eastern Samar, she prayed intensely asking God to allow Cebuanos to celebrate Christmas this year.

Obviously, she feared that Ruby will wreak the same havoc as Yolanda did, which meant that whatever little budget she had for Christmas will once again go to calamity victims like in the past year.

Upon learning that Cebu and most parts of the Visayas were spared by the natural disaster, she happily prepared a list of groceries to buy for Christmas noche buena.

With Cebu and the rest of the country out of harm’s way, hopefully for the rest of the year and the faces of Yolanda victims looking up to a brighter future, we can all say, Pasko na gyud (Christmas is truly here)!