Yennah, representative of the MIHANDS network in the Philippines, shares with us her fears and hopes. Confined to her office, she is busy rethinking the implementation of MIHANDS projects so that she can continue to support people in need during this unprecedented period. And this at a time when, in parallel to the health crisis, the Philippines is also affected by earthquakes and armed conflicts.
« I always found myself too overwhelmed by monitoring all these cases around the world and in the Philippines. I even made a self-made dashboard on our wall recording daily the information I got...At night also, I keep on watching CNN monitoring the trends in the US and China and everywhere. Perhaps, I am very anxious and anticipating much to hear news if they have found a medical remedy to our situation today.
While at the same time also, busy disinfecting our surroundings . . . . calling families ensuring they are all OK.
By the way, in the Philippines, the entire country went on lockdown since 17 March and I was in Cotabato office when this happened. So I am just here in the office until now while my other colleagues are all at home (fortunately). I just call my family everyday and tell them to be extra conscious of the SOPs and precautionary measures especially that we have an 82-year old mother at home. Fortunately they are well so far until now and hoping to remain covid-free in the next days to come. One colleague at MIHANDS, however, has been reported “person under monitoring” because of previous travel from Manila (where the first contagion was discovered) but he went through already with the 14-day quarantine period.
Sadly, in our context, majority of the ordinary population experience difficulty in coping with social/physical distancing, particularly in the shanties of informal settlers where spaces are limited. In big cities, some local government units have not given remedies for urban street dwellers. Many daily income earners like sidewalk vendors, jeepney drivers, among others have also decried on how to carry on their daily lives.... how to bridge from one meal to the next. A law giving emergency power to the President has just been passed accordingly to do stringent and quick measures to control the spread of the virus. They also announced that some economic support packages would be given and have started to ration food packs in some areas.
We have a smaller number of confirmed cases and also deaths, but this is because of very limited diagnosis and hospital care ability. There are reports of deaths that are not recorded even if prior symptoms of respiratory disease have caused the deaths, as these persons had not been tested for lack of testing kits and laboratories capable of analyzing the tests.
With coronavirus, what are already sad conditions of our people become even more frightening ...
We thought however that the best that we can do is to advance vigorously the promotion of healthy living, backyard gardening and home-made food production which are very helpful in this time of the lockdown. We are often tele-conferencing with colleagues disseminating information about simple, affordable things that people can easily access to maintain a good immune system as our way to combat the invisible enemy. But then again, with lockdowns practically installed in every village, we can only do very little at the moment.
With regards the project, we could not deliver the last activity (gardening) at the project evacuation site because it is already impossible to reach them. There is a proposal however to convert it to cash subsidy to some informal settlers whose daily income has been stopped with the lockdown. But this is still undergoing thorough discussion among the officers of MIHANDS.
By the way, aside from the coronavirus problem, I am sad to tell you that one of our partner communities in Lebak, Sultan Kudarat has also experienced the recent displacement of the population due to armed conflict. An armed incident last March 25 took place displacing families – at the moment 96 families are being hosted at the municipal gym of Lebak, Sultan Kudarat province. But this number is said to increase as tracking down of where others went is ongoing. Fortunately, there is no covid confirmed case reported yet in this municipality but at the province level (Sarangani province), however, there are already 3 confirmed patients in the hospital. This incident, unfortunately, has not been captured by the media.
Also, last night, around 23h30, an earthquake again occurred with its epicenter in Sarangani (6.1 magnitude). I felt my bed shaking when it happened. I do not have yet information from the ground about possible damages or about the people's condition. Perhaps, in the next days to come.
With the confirmed cases in France fast increasing, my thoughts are always with you.
Testimony of Yennah, chairperson of MIHANDS, a network of associations in the region of Mindanao, Philippines and partner of Secours Populaire de Paris