Wednesday, October 30, 2013

UNDP succeeds in helping typhoon victims earn a living

COMPOSTELA VALLEY, Oct. 30 (PIA)--- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has somehow succeeded in helping Typhoon Pablo-affected residents rise and return to their  normal  life by providing them ways of earning a living.

UNDP Early Recovery Coordinator for Mindanao Winston Aylmer Camarinas summed up the accomplishment of UNDP in  a recent visit to New Bataan where an international official of UNDP was supposed to do an assessment area visit.

Camarinas believed that UNDP made a significant dent in the early recovery stage during which UNDP poured around P35 million cash-for-work for Typhoon Pablo hardly-hit provinces of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.

“The impact is basically is more on early recovery. Natabangan sila nga makabangon (They were assisted to rise back to normal life).  We thought we did it.

Camarinas said that the substantial funds poured for Compostela Valley went to New Bataan where UNDP immediately focused on debris management, starting with debris clearing especially the public market.

UNDP rented backhoes and dump-trucks to load out the mass of mud that swamped the poblacion area of New Bataan. It also cleared the rivers and creeks in New Bataan and assisted in restoring schools.

 Even before providing livelihood training, UNDP provided typhoon-affected families, means of earning a living by hiring them to do cash-for-work  jobs in debris clearing, paying them P226 a day or 75 percent of the minimum rate.

UNDP then took steps to turn the debris into sources of livelihood of typhoon victims by providing training on carpentry in coordination with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

“They made (pieces of) furniture out of drift woods,” Camarinas said.

In Compostela,  UNDP  sponsored  the carpentry  training of 160 typhoon-affected individuals whom it  gave tools and cash incentives.  While others were eventually engaged in furniture-making, some were deployed to housing construction projects.  (PIA XI/ JMDA)

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