ANISLAG SHELTER PROJECT: A PASSAGE

When typhoon REMING (international code name DURIAN) came upon the people at the foothills of the beautiful and majestic Mayon Volcano in the middle eastern part of the Philippines last November 29, 2006, life literally stopped and “darkness came upon the earth.” Where there was lush green countryside, there is now only black rocks, black sand, black muddy waters. Where there was laughter, sharing and warmth characteristic of rural communities, there was only the silence of death. Thousands were entombed, some of them never to be recovered. Where there were villages and homes and simple possessions, now there is only memory. The desolation was so deep it didn’t seem possible for hope to ever come again.

In the frantic efforts for rescue, crisis intervention and later rehabilitation, the Daughters of Charity took responsibility for a little community (MALOBAGO) of 330 families living right at the foothills and who, while losing only one life, lost everything else: homes, farms products, land. From Day 4 of the tragedy until now, the Daughters served at the Evacuation Center where the residents are housed in classrooms and tents. This very temporary housing – crowded, miserable, unsanitary, without privacy and unfamiliar, only added to their sense of unreality and shock, and reinforced their uncertainty about the future.

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