Bucana Update #1: What You See is What I Have
Bucana Update #1: What You See is What I Have by Grace Gaston-Dousel
It wasn’t the same as before. The landscape changed overnight. What used to be a crowded, children-littered, shanties-infested area is now a massive rubble of ember, charred galvanized sheets and smoking cement slabs. Bucana’s narrow alleys have become wide open spaces. The shoreline that was once lined with stilt houses is now just a sandy beach, save for a few concrete structures like the mosque that survived the fire last night.
We surveyed what was left of the community this morning. Out of the 80 houses that our team (MUPT-TDP) serves, only 10 survived the razing. We were told that about 118 houses were leveled to ashes in two barangays. This meant that as far as our area of ministry is concerned, there are about 320 families in dire need of immediate relief at the moment. That’s about 15,000 individuals!
“Ate** Mai, what you see now is what I have,” said Jocelyn, a member of the Bucana youth group, to Maimai (our team’s nurse). She shared how she could not report for work (she’s a working student) because she doesn’t even have a change of clothes.
“We lost everything,” said Ate Lina. “We only have our clothes. We couldn’t save anything. The fire was spreading too fast.” She told me that the first thing she did was to take her children to a safe place. By the time she got back, the house was gone. “My daughter, Yen, would probably not go to school this semester. The money I was saving up for her enrollment got burned as well,” she shared with despair in her eyes. She has carefully set aside Php2,500 in anticipation of her daughter’s educational expenses. Yen is one of the active youth in Bucana. She has been part of many MUPT-TDP-sponsored activities, the most recent of which was the youth art workshop. She is supposed to be in third year college this academic year but may have to forego enrollment unless she gets financial assistance. Ate Lina seemed resigned to the idea that Yen and her siblings would have to stop schooling this year. However, she couldn’t bear to see her children starving. It was nearly noontime when I met her standing in front of the ruins of their house. “My children haven’t eaten and we’re all hungry.” Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough money to give at the time I visited. It made me feel helpless that I had nothing to offer but my presence. I assured her that people were praying for her and that help is on its way.
Jocelyn, Ate Lina and Yen are among a few who’ve lost whatever earthly possessions they have to the fire that spread wildly across the shorelines of Bucana last night. They need our love, care, prayers and help at this time. Among their and their families’ immediate needs include food, beddings (mats and blankets), clothes and possible financial aid to help the children and youth go to school when it opens on June 4.
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*Malikha Urban Poor Team-Taytayan Development Projects is our team’s work among Muslim urban poor communities.
** Term of respect for an older lady.
It wasn’t the same as before. The landscape changed overnight. What used to be a crowded, children-littered, shanties-infested area is now a massive rubble of ember, charred galvanized sheets and smoking cement slabs. Bucana’s narrow alleys have become wide open spaces. The shoreline that was once lined with stilt houses is now just a sandy beach, save for a few concrete structures like the mosque that survived the fire last night.
We surveyed what was left of the community this morning. Out of the 80 houses that our team (MUPT-TDP) serves, only 10 survived the razing. We were told that about 118 houses were leveled to ashes in two barangays. This meant that as far as our area of ministry is concerned, there are about 320 families in dire need of immediate relief at the moment. That’s about 15,000 individuals!
“Ate** Mai, what you see now is what I have,” said Jocelyn, a member of the Bucana youth group, to Maimai (our team’s nurse). She shared how she could not report for work (she’s a working student) because she doesn’t even have a change of clothes.
“We lost everything,” said Ate Lina. “We only have our clothes. We couldn’t save anything. The fire was spreading too fast.” She told me that the first thing she did was to take her children to a safe place. By the time she got back, the house was gone. “My daughter, Yen, would probably not go to school this semester. The money I was saving up for her enrollment got burned as well,” she shared with despair in her eyes. She has carefully set aside Php2,500 in anticipation of her daughter’s educational expenses. Yen is one of the active youth in Bucana. She has been part of many MUPT-TDP-sponsored activities, the most recent of which was the youth art workshop. She is supposed to be in third year college this academic year but may have to forego enrollment unless she gets financial assistance. Ate Lina seemed resigned to the idea that Yen and her siblings would have to stop schooling this year. However, she couldn’t bear to see her children starving. It was nearly noontime when I met her standing in front of the ruins of their house. “My children haven’t eaten and we’re all hungry.” Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough money to give at the time I visited. It made me feel helpless that I had nothing to offer but my presence. I assured her that people were praying for her and that help is on its way.
Jocelyn, Ate Lina and Yen are among a few who’ve lost whatever earthly possessions they have to the fire that spread wildly across the shorelines of Bucana last night. They need our love, care, prayers and help at this time. Among their and their families’ immediate needs include food, beddings (mats and blankets), clothes and possible financial aid to help the children and youth go to school when it opens on June 4.
-----------
*Malikha Urban Poor Team-Taytayan Development Projects is our team’s work among Muslim urban poor communities.
** Term of respect for an older lady.
posted by grace gaston-dousel | 7:51 PM
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