Needing Everything

"Our life is so difficult because of that typhoon. We don't have shelter. We don't have enough food or drinking water."
"Despite the difficulties we have suffered, we still smile because God has given us hope, strength and another life."
Gemma Deloviar, teacher, Olotayan Island Philippines

Islanders return from church with drinking water and a small amount of rice and other staples. These basic donations, paid for by Filipinos in Canada, the U.S. and Australia, are the first relief aid to reach the residents of Olotayan Island since typhoon Haiyan struck.    Photograph by: Matthew Fisher/Postmedia News, Postmedia News

 

"Look, we're already trying to fix up as much as we can. People are using pieces of scrap wood from their old houses to build temporary covers for their children to sleep under."
 "We no longer have many school supplies and no ballpoint pens. Some students still can't make it from the other side of the mountain because the path is blocked by fallen trees. But people remain optimistic because they are still alive."
Precious Deloviar, teacher, Olotayan

Olotayan is a tiny island in the Visayan Sea in the Philippines. They caught the tail end of the typhoon that devastated Tacloban and surrounding area. The island is about 300 kilometres west of Tacloban, but it suffered no less than what occurred there. Trees uprooted, most of the homes on the island destroyed, but for 20 of the 280 housing the island's population of 980.

A few of the 15 fishing boats which survived Super Typhoon Haiyan on November 8. Forty others were destroyed as were 260 of 280 homes on the island of Oloyatan. Matthew Fisher/Postmedia News

Fishing is the trade that supports most families. And of the 55 fishing boats representing the source of income for the residents, 40 have vanished into the receded seas. "We'll look for another boat but they cost about 80,000 pesos (about $2,000) and we have no money", said Joerly Tanlawan who with his wife Imelda now find themselves penniless, their home flattened, fishing boat washed out to sea.

No aid has yet reached the people on the island. With its white sand beaches and its tropical location it might have once looked like Paradise. Now it is simply a wreck waiting to be restored, if at all possible, to a livable village where families fish for a living and take pride in their church and their schools which the 289 students on the island attend.

One of the village's three classrooms remained fairly intact and students from Grades 3 and 4 were studying in it. In the afternoon, classes for Grades 5 and 6 would take their turn. And younger children in Grades 1 and 2 took up their place for learning on a roofless stage that was once a schoolroom.

At the Roman Catholic Church, a structure still standing, where a priest comes once a month to conduct services, villagers gathered to collect modest distributions of food donated by islanders now living in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. Each family came away with a few kilograms of rice, eight litres of water, a few tins of sardines and corned beef, and used clothing.

"There were really important gifts because we have no agriculture here and must depend on the waters around us for crabs, squid, cuttlefish and tuna", explained the 59-year-old village elder acting as chief. "We cannot even properly start to rebuild our homes because nipa (a natural building material) and bamboo and other things we might use are not available anywhere. We need plywood. We need nails. We need everything."