Marawi families given 66,000 sacks of rice
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2019 16:15:55 +0000
World Vision, in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Taiwan, recently held a rice turnover in Region 10, donating 66,000 sacks of rice to at least 620 families affected by the Marawi City crisis.
“This is just the first batch. In the coming days, more families will also receive the 30-kilogram sack of rice,” World Vision’s Executive Director Rommel Fuerte said, adding that the organization’s support to the families was especially intended for their children.
The 66,000 donated sacks of rice will support the food assistance project of the Philippine government, which aims to alleviate food shortage and enhance access to food of affected families.
World Food Programme’s December 2018 report showed that food gap remains at 73.30 percent.
In response, the DSWD, under the Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Program distributed a cash grant of $1,400 (P73,000) comprising of $385 (P20,000) for Livelihood Settlement Grants and $1,019 (P53,000) for the Transitory Family Support Package to 15,615 families from the 24 most affected areas, but both the DSWD and the Task Force Bangon Marawi recognized that there is still a need for food support.
Still coping
Two of the first to receive the rice were 43-year-old Imran and 27-year- old Saadia.
Imran and his family have been living in a temporary shelter for several months now.
He used to be a furniture dealer, earning somewhere between P10,000 and P13,000.
Today, Imran relies on his two older children who had to go to Manila to look for money.
Saadi, meanwhile, had to leave her two children under the care of relatives.
She and her husband only have their two-year-old son Anuwar with them.
With unstable source of income, both families struggle to make ends meet.
A gantang (approximately 3 kilos) of rice alone costs around P100 to P120.
“That looks okay, but if you don’t have a hundred pesos, that’s expensive. Most families here eat twice or once a day, sometimes not at all. That’s why when we received news that we will be given a sack of rice, we were happy. This is a big help for us,” Imran said.
Saadia echoed Imran’s gratitude, noting that she would have food for her son Anuwar in the coming days.
Jerry Cheng-An Chuang, director of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines, during the rice turnover ceremony, assured their commitment to supporting the people of Marawi
Aside from the government agencies of Philippines and Taiwan, World Vision is also supported by Wan Hai Lines for the project.
The five-month-long Marawi armed conflict, which started on May 23, 2017, has displaced at least 350,000 people, according to the Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center of the DSWD.