Remembering the Victims of Typhoon Haiyan
I remember that it was around this time, a year ago when I started my blog that the Typhoon Haiyan devastated Tacloban, Philippines leaving 8,000 people dead or missing and four million displaced and homeless. The disaster quickly brought on a grave humanitarian catastrophe as many needed food, shelter and immediate medical care.
Now, one year on, we remember the victims and our hearts and prayers go out to the orphans, widows and others badly affected by the floods who are still trying to rebuild their lives. Some lost everything.
It is sad that one year after, only 450 homes have been rebuilt and 15,000 people are still homeless despite the huge allocation of $1.15bn by the Philippines Government. Many still live in temporary shelters where food and water is often scarce.
One year on and so many are still feeling the pains of the typhoon like it was just yesterday. We cannot bring back the people they lost but we can at least help them rebuild their lives. The Government of Philippines should put aside politics and work together with willing aid agencies to ensure the proper rehabilitation of all the those affected.
Written by Olisa Lotenna
Lotenna Blog 
November 8, 2014 at 2:10 pm
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
I remember too … Isn’t this the way it goes? A huge natural disaster …. Lives lost, money donated/allocated …. yet victims remain affected. Sad, more than sad. Says a lot about governments.
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November 18, 2014 at 2:23 am
The national government has only built around 140 ‘permanent’ homes (as opposed to ‘transitional’ houses which are made of light-weight materials and not meant to withstand storms), despite having a lot of foreign aid. On the other hand, the NGO where I work in has a less than a tenth of the national government’s budget, yet we’ve built five times more permanent shelters for Haiyan victims.
Our national government is incompetent (at the minimum) and downright callous and does not care about the people (at the maximum).
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November 18, 2014 at 9:30 am
I figured this out. And it is extremely sad to have someone on the ground confirm this. The Government of Philippines has really done badly and it show they do not care about all the lives shattered by the deadly Haiyan and this breaks my heart so much. My dear, Anton keep working for the good of humanity and may God bless you. Please, send me the name of your NGO.
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