Immediate Responses & Temporary Solutions to Long-Term Problem

When I was in the Philippines a month ago, most of the Metro and the areas that I have went to look back to normal. The billboards are all up again on EdSA, everyone is back to work/school and there are not a lot of volunteer locations anymore since people have to go back to regular programming.

Ondoy was not in the news anymore or as much. Elections are coming up and so campaigning has begun and people are talking about political moves/hopes/worries. But from what I have seen, most things are back to normal again and I am actually hearing more news abroad about people helping than from people back at home.

So what now, Filipinos? Are we just going to provide temporary solutions to long-term problems? What can we do in order to be better prepared in the future?





The effect of Ondoy to those I know who were affected is trauma. When there was a storm one weekend, the rains weren't heavy at all, the wind was slightly strong in the morning, HOWEVER, the streets were clear. People do not want to go out or mobilize when there are storn signal forecasts. They're afraid that they might get stuck somewhere and cannot be home. 

Another effect of a batchmate I know is that every time it would rain hard, she would bring up her stuff to the second floor of her house just to make sure she won't lose things. A lot of people are still recovering from the typhoon, however, have to go back to work and talk about the storm and how it affected them (post-traumatic stress/part of letting go, etc).


RockEd Philippines is a volunteer group that provides venues and events for alternative education in the Philippines and they have tied up with DSWD to help sort out goods in their warehouse in Pasay. There's a lot of help needed in packing goods, but unfortunately, they have also expressed that they would need a lot of manpower to be able to distribute these goods. THEY STILL NEED YOUR HELP UNTIL NOW.


I am aware that a few months back, there has been a media outburst about DSWD and civilians taking relief goods from the supplies and not providing or giving it ot those who really need it. While this cannot be denied nor fully proved, it should not stop us from helping in every single way that we can. 

I hope that we find ways to organize ourselves in preparations for future disasters...and not jsut provide immediate and temporary relief for long term issues.