Fire victims: How to help, donate

Donations and relief aid are being received for survivors of the post-Christmas fire in sitio Avocado in barangay Lahug, Cebu City.

Cooked meals in styropacks, sacks of rice, used clothes and dry good continue to arrive at the Lahug Elementary School, where fire victims have been staying since the December 26 fire.

Maria Diamante, a 57-year-old mother of three,  lost everything in the late afternoon blaze.

She said any financial aid is  appreciated most by her family so they can build a new home and buy basic supplies.

She worried that her children’s school supplies were destroyed in the fire.

“Karon, anhi rami sa gym. Naghuwat og pagkaon ug bisag unsa nga donation nga moabot,” Diamante told Cebu Daily News.

(For now, we stay here at the gym waiting for the food distribution and donations to arrive.)

On Tuesday, Rep. Raul del Mar of the north district led the distribution of  P3,000 to homeowners and P2,000 to renters/sharers through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s cash assistance program.

City Hall employees donated canned goods and relief items which were turned over yesterday at the Lahug Elementary School.

The City Council has yet to declare the barangay under a state of calamity which would trigger the release of a disaster fund.

Meal packs of cooked food were distributed for three days after the fire, a standard emergency measure of the DSWS.

After that, canned goods and dry goods were distributed.

Cash aid  will be given by the Cebu City government to house owners in the amount of    P10,000 for  dwellings that were destroyed or P5,000 for partly damaged houses.