(LITO A.BAGUNAS)
DULAG, Leyte- Thirty-six year old mother Rowena Capili made a shriek minutes after she met with movie and television actress KC Concepcion, who visited this typhoon-hit town as an ambassadress of the United Nations World Food Programme on April 9, Wednesday.
Concepcion, wearing a white t-shirt with the logo of WFP emblazoned on it, personally fed Capili’s three-year old daughter Daisy during the ceremonial feeding program sponsored by the WFP and the Samaritan’s Purse.
“She is so beautiful and smiles a lot. I feel lucky to get so near to her and have my baby fed by KC. I only see her in television,” Capili said.
The activity was held in Barangay Buntay which was attended by about a hundred mothers, some of them pregnant who were given the ready-to-use supplementary foods sponsored by the WFP and Samaritan’s Purse, among the different international humanitarian aid groups which extends assistance to victims of Yolanda.
The popular actress, who is the WFP’ national ambassador against hunger, said that she was glad to visit Dulag and Tacloban City , both in Leyte .
According to her, since the first day after Yolanda hit the Visayas, she has been monitoring the situation of the victims.
She arrived at Brgy. Buntay at around 9 am and mingle with the huge audience who kept on taking pictures with her. She left the town more than an hour later in a convoy of WFP cars.
Conception’s main concern was if the victims were having enough foods and water.
“You know, foods and water are very essential every time there is a calamity. And I am glad that the WFP, together with our government, the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), provided food aids to the victims,” she said.
It was learned that Concepcion has donated about P3 million to the WFP for the victims of Yolanda. She’s been with the WFP for six years now.
She expressed her elation that the victims appeared to have recovered from the experience of Yolanda.
“The people are now smiling and have moved with their lives,” Concepcion said.
She, however, stressed that despite of this, there is still a need for the victims to be given assistance by the government and other aid groups like the WFP.
WFP country director, Praveen Agrawal, said that they would continue to provide assistance to all victims of Yolanda as long as they need to be given aid.
The WFP has so far provided about $88 million food assistance to the country and downloaded 33,000 metric tons of rice.
Agrawal said that the WFP is proud to have the popular actress in carrying out their mission, especially during a calamity.
“She is very special person,” she said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
