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Balay Mindanaw Disaster
Response Report as of 27 January 2012
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We gladly and humbly share with
you this first report two weeks after we decided to temporarily stop
posting daily updates/reports on Balay MindanawÕs Disaster Response
activities as we transition from primarily relief and rehabilitation
work to a more long-term programmatic package of interventions.
We have formulated a two-year
program we now call the Balay Mindanaw Post-Disaster Recovery,
Adaptation and Resiliency Building Program. We will be
utilizing the remainder of your generous donations for the initial
implementation of this Program. AUSAID has also expressed interest
to provide some initial funds. We are now reaching out to you and
other resource partners for possible partnerships. While
mapping out strategic long-term interventions, we have also
sustained our support work for the three tent communities and five
barangays, expanded and strengthened partnerships, and continued
exploring and mobilizing more resources. More
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Help is pouring in from
Australia! Click picture for details. |
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Balay Mindanaw Disaster
Response: Looking Back and Moving Forward…
Thirty-one days after Sendong
struck, and 29 days after we went full-swing in our organized
response to the disaster, we now share with you a summary and
consolidation, and our initial plans for a more organized and
sustained response. The first day after the disaster was spent
in ensuring that all the members of the Balay Mindanaw Group and
their families are safe and secure. We offered our Peace
Center to be a home to those who were badly hit by the floods.
Then, we started looking at the bigger community. We issued a call
for a more organized response to the disaster. Among the very
first to respond to the call were the Balay Mindanaw colleagues who
were themselves “victims”. Thus, we adopted the
slogan: “We refuse to be victims. We choose to be
resources.” More
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Sendong
relief work in Cagayan de Oro
Ignoring international humanitarian standards yet another disaster?
There are
international humanitarian (SPHERE’s) standards when dealing with
evacuees: such as 3.5 square meters as minimum floor space per
person, or 20 persons per classroom, 15 liters of water per person
per day, 1 latrine per 20 persons or for one family, also ensuring
that the new or temporary dwellings are accessible to major
transportation and communication facilities. Such standards,
however, have not been strictly observed during the interventions of
the last 40 days. Are the
international standards just guides to consider or should they be
strictly adhered to so that we can be sure that further disaster
will not befall the worst affected? Is there really an argument that
can justifiably say we should “contextualize” these humanitarian
standards? More
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Ayi's series on his Sendong experience
Ayi and Belle Hernandez,
as well as their kids, were among the victims of Typhoon Sendong as
floodwaters submerged their home. They saved nothing but themselves.
How they made it out alive, how they coped with being among the
thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and the lessons
they learned along the way ... are in this series of essays by Ayi.
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ESSAY
Peace challenge to the
GPH and NDFP: Peace agreement in 18 months (2012-June 2013) with interim ceasefire, or else…
This is that time of the year
again for possible unilateral announcements by the Government of the
Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP) on a Christmas season ceasefire. Last year’s
Christmas season ceasefire of 19 days from 16 December 2010 (the
traditional beginning of Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo) to 3 January
2011 was hailed as the “longest” ever such ceasefire for quite
some time. But actually, there were previous longer Christmas season
ceasefires of 29 days from 9 December 2001 to 6 January 2002 during
the first year of the first Arroyo administration (2001-04), and of
60 days from 10 December 1986 to 6 February 1987, the latter also
related to the first GRP-NDFP peace talks during the first year of
the first Aquino administration (1986-92). More
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Balay Mindanaw
Foundation, Inc. (BMFI)
is a Mindanao-based, Mindanao-focused non-stock, non-profit
foundation primarily engaged in promoting sustainable
integrated area development, developing mechanisms and
technologies for increased democratic participation of people
and communities in local governance, and facilitating resource
tenure improvement. |
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