TACLOBAN CITY- Over 17,000 students from Yolanda-hit areas of Tanauan and Tolosa were provided with school kits from Korean groups on February 4.
The 17,300 preelementary, elementary and secondary students received the school items from the Gyeonggi provincial office, Korea Food for the Hungry, International and Givers Funds Incorporated.
According to Sang Rok Suh of the Gyeonggi provincial office of education, said that with these towns hardly hit by the super typhoon, students lost all their belongings, to include those they uses for their studies.
The students received back packs with pencil, ball pen, eraser, crayon, art materials, color paper, notebook among others.
The 17,300 students came from 15 schools from Tolosa and 45 schools from Tanuan.
Present during the distribution of the school kits to the students were Leyte schools division superintendent Ronilo Al Firmo, Board Members Gina Merillo and Nicolo Villasin, chairman of the committee on education of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Leyte, representing Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla.
The mayors of the two town recipients, Erwin Ocana (Tolosa) and Pelagio Tecson (Tanauan) expressed their gratitude for the assistance extended by the groups to their students.
The distribution of school bags by the Korean groups is their way of helping the rebuilding effort of the provincial government.
TACLOBAN CITY – A structure intended for pregnant mothers who are to deliver their babies is to be completed soon.
Board Member Alan Ang of Leyte’s third district and former mayor of San Isidro town, said that the structure, known as the “waiting home” is now about 85 percent completed.
The “waiting home,” which was donated to the town of San Isidro by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, aims to help lessen, if not totally prevent, cases of maternal and maternal in the town.
“The idea there is for the pregnant women to stay there (for a week) prior to their delivery date so they could reach the birthing facility immediately when they feel the contraction due to labor pain,” Ang explained.
The facility is located around 40 meters away from the town’s birthing clinic. Those who will use it will not be charged.
The structure, consisting of eight rooms with a kitchen, is said to be a first of its kind in the region, he added.
It cost about P1 million with the local government of San Isidro’s only counterpart was the location.
“If this becomes operational, the cases of maternal and child death in my town will be lessen and we will be assured of the safe delivery of the baby because they will be born in a center that is supervised by medical workers,” Ang said.
REPAIR. Korean soldiers made a fast work in repairing the Leyte Provincial Hospital buildings were destroyed by Yolanda. Doctor Ophelia Absin could not contain her gratitude to the soldiers led by Captain Chu Wan Lee. (Photo by: TOTEX ARCUENO)
REPAIR. Korean soldiers made a fast work in repairing the Leyte Provincial Hospital buildings were destroyed by Yolanda. Doctor Ophelia Absin could not contain her gratitude to the soldiers led by Captain Chu Wan Lee. (Photo by: TOTEX ARCUENO)
PALO, Leyte-Soldiers from the Republic of Korea conducted the repair of the Leyte Provincial Hospital which was severely damaged by supertyphoon Yolanda.
And after more than 30 days of work, the hospital is now functioning enough to offer health services to the people, a gesture welcome by chief of hospital Doctor Ophelia Absin.
“They are really a big help,” she said.
The 86 Korean soldiers, led by Colonel Chu Wan Lee, turned over on February 5 the rehabilitated buildings of the LPH.
“Of course, we are happy with the help extended to us by our Korean soldiers and their government. You know, we cannot accomplished this if we just rely on our (provincial) government considering that we are all affected and it will cost huge amount of money,” Absin said.
The Korean soldiers worked for almost a month, to include Saturdays and Sundays, just to finish the repair of the hospital’s out-patient department, laboratory, Ex-ray room, ward’s department and even its canteen.
The soldiers started their work on January 3, 2013 and finished their work by February 5, this year.
The rehabilitation just cost P1.3 million, according to the Lee.
Their Filipino counterparts also joined in the work aside from providing them security, said Brigadier Gen. Rolando Malinao, head of the Task Force Yolanda.
“I was deeply moved by the hospital’s personnel passion to look after the patients despite of the (bad) condition of the hospital,” Lee said.
When they first visited the place on December 30, they were shocked on the condition of the hospital- destroyed and full of debris.
Its patients have to contend with rooms without roofs on their heads.
Major Kwon Doo Young, public relations officer of the Korean troops, said that they were “so concern” with the physical condition of the LPH that instead of helping its patients recover from their ailments, it could only aggravate their health condition and spread of more diseases.
This was the reason why they made the rehabilitation of the LPH as their priority among other public buildings in Palo destroyed by Yolanda, Young said.
Absin said that with the restored LPH, they could now serve better their clients who are not only from the Palo town but from other areas of Leyte and even Samar.
The LPH, which has a 100- bed capacity, closed its operations after it was hit by Yolanda and reopened on November 22, 2013 despite of the damaged condition of the buildings and its facilities.
Leyte Board Member and former governor Mimiette Bagulaya said that the people of Leyte have so much to thank for on the assistance extended by the Korean government.
“This really means a lot for us. They were really a big help,”Bagulaya said.
A posterity pose with the Cristina Learn & Earn program (CLEP) 1st livelihood hair cutting class for Yolanda survivors with the CLEP founder Tacloban City Councilor Cristina and mothers during the relaunching CLEP program for Taclobanon held Feb. 4, 2014 at Rizal Elementary School.(Photo by: Gay B. Gaspay-TISAT)
A posterity pose with the Cristina Learn & Earn program (CLEP) 1st livelihood hair cutting class for Yolanda survivors with the CLEP founder Tacloban City Councilor Cristina and mothers during the relaunching CLEP program for Taclobanon held Feb. 4, 2014 at Rizal Elementary School.(Photo by: Gay B. Gaspay-TISAT)
TACLOBAN CITY- City Councilor Cristina G. Romualdez relaunches her “Cristina Learn and Earn Program (CLE) in an effort to help residents of this city who either lost their jobs or looking for source of income in the aftermath of the supertyphoon Yolanda.
The relaunching of the CLEP was held on February 4 at the Rizal Central School led by the councilor, wife of Mayor Alfred Romualdez.
The CLEP, a comprehensive livelihood program, will equip women and mothers with special skills for them to earn money. For a start, hair cutting classes was held with mothers, yayas and grandmothers waiting for their students at the said school were the immediate recipients of the program.
Marissa of Barangay 96 said in an interview that availing the program is an opportunity worth grabbing. “While our kids are inside their classrooms, we mothers learn something which we can use later to earn a living,” she said.
Hair cutting techniques were likewise explained by Councilor Romualdez and return demonstration were being executed by the recipients.
Some 30 mothers enrolled themselves at the hair cutting classes. Founder and implementer of the CLEP program, the lady councilor revealed that the next succeeding classes will offer programs on carpentry, masonry, welding and automobile repairs for men.
Councilor Romualdez encourages more mothers to join the various livelihood classes on cooking, food processing, reflexology and cosmetology which the city government offers. Interested one can visit her Legislative Office at the Sangguniang Panglunsod Building for more details. (GAY B.GASPAY, TISAT)
Such a heroic feat usually is done by a foot soldier or any ordinary man in uniform, a PO. But a senior superintendent of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to gamble his own life to save a family from drowning in the rampaging flood that typhoon Yolanda caused, is worthy of note.
Paulete Buenaventura, is a 32 years-old mother of three: ages 12, 7 and 3. She hails from Basey, Samar but now resides at FERIAN apartment, Brgy. 84 Manlurip, Tacloban City. She works at the Philippine National Bank (PNB), and has a seaman husband who was away to foreign seas when typhoon Yolanda, the strongest typhoon that hit Tacloban and other towns of Leyte on the 8th of November 2013.
As Yolanda’s strong killer winds lashed their place, Paulete feared it might break their window glasses so she had the windows protected by a heavy mattress. She started to pack; to include foods, clothing and secured important documents. Then suddenly, flood waters splashed into their dwelling, and it rose so high in a matter of seconds. By impulse, tugging her children along, she climbed up the second floor of their apartment. At the second floor she had a clear view of the outside, and they saw dwellings being blown and floating in the flood were debris was all over; a number of rooftops got detached and blown down too. The waters in the street were almost ten feet (10 ft.) deep, she calculated.
Fearing that the same might happen to their apartment, she immediately with her young children and a nanny, climbed up the ceiling and crawled to the next apartment, Door 4, she insistently knocked at its ceiling. Lo and behold! SSupt. Hernan Gallo Grande was there with a Jail Officer 1 Flores, possibly a security officer. S/Supt. Grande is the regional director of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Region VIII. He took them in and instructed Paulette to have her kids stay at the ceiling, for their own safety. He made makeshift stairs using the sofa and improvised a rope out of belts and blankets.
At the Grande Apartment Door 4, another family not know to SSupt Grande and not from the same apartment has already taken shelter ahead of them. This family almost drowned from the flood but S/Supt. Grande saw them floating and appearing helpless in the waters so the officer immediately dived into the rampaging waters carrying with him the makeshift rope to save the drowning family. Safe inside the Grande apartment, the BJMP director noticed that the leg of the father of this other saved family was bleeding profusely. Director Grande immediately got his first aid kit, disinfected the wound, poured Betadine and pressed and covered the wound with clothes to stop the bleeding.
Both families were provided dry clothes by the director.
TACLOBAN CITY – Wastes coming from the hospitals needs to be disposed properly to avoid possible spread of disease.
With this goal, the ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) has been going around in all hospitals in Tacloban to gather and collect all of their wastes.
The group collects about 100 cubic meters of solid waste a day. The ACTED started their hospital wastes gathering on November 19, 2013.
Collecting these wastes from the hospitals would deter possible occurrence of diseases, said its project manager Engr. Francis Lloyd Cinco.
He said that if these hospital wastes like gloves, syringes and medicine bottles, would not be disregarded, there is a high possibility that diseases would be developed.
“These hospital wastes must not be disregarded by the government. These must be collected and thrown in a proper area where there are no houses that will be distracted by the bad odor of those waste,” Cinco said.
All wastes collected by their group are being dumped at the northern village of Santo Nino where Tacloban’s open dump site is located.
The dump is far from any houses, schools, office and other structure, Cinco said.
“It is the duty and responsibility of the hospital to segregate their waste. Our (only) duty is to collect and throw their waste in dump site,” he added.
The ACTED collects the wastes coming from all hospitals in Tacloban. Hospitals from the towns of Palo, Tanauan and Burauen, all in Leyte, are also being cover by their wastes collection.
Cinco said that all their 80 volunteers are being paid by the ACTED at P260 a day of work. All of them wear safety gears such as safety mask, safety goggles, hand gloves and boots.
