No Ordinary Shelter

NO ORDINARY SHELTER
Zandro Escat


I went for an assessment in one of the identified evacuation camp in Pikit together with some staff from Oblates of Mary Immaculate-Integrated Rehabilitation Program (OMI-IRP) one of our partner organization and the social welfare officer. On our way to Pido Pulangui, the staff informed me that the river is rising and will be impossible for us to visit the camps. I also observed makeshifts made from leaves of coconut lined up on the roadside. This is not a farm hut. These huts are shelter of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Some of it were abandoned because of the flood.

Maam Grace a social welfare officer of Pikit told me that they have a hard time reaching these IDPs. These IDPs slept on dirt with just leaves from coconut as their mats. When it rain, they are all wet. And now that the area is flooded, they left nowhere to sleep. Some slept on a “karusa” (a cart pulled by carabao/water buffalo). We try to reach them through medical missions and other relief activities. We have a problem in this area because, people won’t leave and the river overflows. Water may reach up to waist level. The IDPs won’t leave their belongings or maybe tired of packing their things. They prefer to stay than go anywhere else. They also found comfort here even in this situation. ZCE

Displaced IDPs

It was our first travel to Shariff Aguak one of the Municipality of Maguindanao to have our courtesy visit to the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO). This is after we were restricted to travel using this route since the fighting in Maguindanao errupted. Along our way we noticed evacuation camps and groups of uniformed military men after every five hundred (500m) meters. We saw people in groups walking along the National Highway. Together with them are their belongings, children and farm animals. Many of them use their farm animals to carry loads basic stuffs like food, clothing and cooking wares and mostly are walking. We wonder where this people would go. Are they going back to their villages or to the evacuation centers?


We talked to the Administrative officer of IPHO Jamila Amba. She told us about the displacements going on. I have (Jamila Amba) experienced being held by the military for about two hours because of the on going fighting near the national highway. In one of my experience, the evacuees don’t know where to go they are really messed up. They will be in one evacuation camp for a day and gone the following day. Some host community also left their homes for unknown reason when evacuees arrived in their village. “We really have a hard time documenting the evacuees because they are very mobile” and this conflict now are very different with what we have experienced in 2000 and 2003 she said. In the previous conflict health services were easily delivered and accessed. Our Director and Rural Health Officers are now staying in the evacuation camps for monitoring and documentation. They were there day and night.