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No. 62 | 7 November 2014
Yolanda Rain Malate and her mother Marike (19). Yolanda was born on the night of the superstorm. Inset,
mother and baby in December 2013. © IOM/Joe Lowry 2014
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Yolanda’s First Year
One year ago,
18-year-old Marike Malate was swimming
for her life, in
the dark, debris-strewn water that
engulfed her
family home on Pampongo Street,
Tacloban. Not
just for her life, but for the life inside her,
the life that
burst out hours later in an abandoned
building, with her mother and father as her birth attendants.
The city was pounded by Typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda). Thousands died,
hundreds of thousands were left homeless, and a year on it, and all its 240,000
residents still bear the scars.
As Marike was giving birth, her husband, Johnel, also just 18, was swept away and never
seen again. She christened her baby Yolanda Rain, “So I can always remember.”
Watch "Portraits of Recovery"
Read on
Watch "Tindog Kita!" music video.
Sugilanon (Conversations)
One year after the devastation, hope
arises (IOM Roxas)
UN Humanitarian Country Team: Philippine Social Welfare Sec. Corazon “Dinky” Soliman (in red vest) with
visiting Baroness Valerie Amos - UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief
Coordinator (3rd from left around table), and Conrad Navidad - IOM CCCM Program Coordinator (extreme left
around table)
Haiyan Ground Zero
Now On Higher Ground
Almost a year ago, I found myself in the midst of an
unimaginable devastation that was brought by Haiyan. In
less than 24 hours, we landed the first Philippine Air Force
C130 in Tacloban after two Huey helicopters flew from
Cebu at 6 a.m. to manually clear the airstrip of debris –
trees, galvanized iron – including two cadavers. Conrad Navidad (IOM), Agnes Palacio,
Praveen Agrawal, with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
team, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) team and the military were met by Secretary
Voltz Gazmin, Secretary Mar Roxas, and Regional Director Remia Tapispisan of the
DSWD. We were in the middle of the Philippine government’s largest post-disaster
rescue and rehab effort.
Read on
Haiyan Response:
One Year After
Communications with Communities
in Post-Typhoon Philippines
Conrad Navidad, IOM CCCM Program Coordinator at Tacloban with Haiyan survivors, Day 3. © IOM 2014
What IOM has Given to Haiyan
Emergency Response Efforts
Conrad Navidad of the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) - Philippines’ Emergency Preparedness
and Response Unit (EPRU) was deployed to Haiyan
(locally, Yolanda) Ground Zero 24 hours after “the
strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in all recorded
history” broke into the islands of Samar and Leyte. Nervous, excited, and afraid – all at
the same time – Conrad said a word of prayer as he boarded his plane not knowing what
awaited him at his destination and how long he would stay there.
“For the first time, I understood what ‘devastation’ means. The space before me – what
used to be ranked among the ten most competitive cities in the Philippines – was now no
more than piles of wood, metal, cement, electric poles, tin. . . . and bodies,” Conrad
recalls clearly. People walked the streets aimlessly like zombies. A staccato of new
experiences seared Conrad’s memory and senses - the invasive stench of a decomposing
body – multiplied to the hundreds (or so they thought); looting; anger; fear; voiced and
silent cries of agony; absence of food; no drinking water. All electric poles and satellite
towers twisted and pummelled into the ground.
Read on
Learn more about IOM's
Communications with Communities
around the world by following these
accounts:
@IOMCwC
@IOMasiapacific
@IOM_Philippines
Starting the Conversation:
A Step in the Right Direction
The meeting about the typhoon response had just ended.
As I walked down the devastated streets of Tacloban, I
heard two young girls singing a familiar chorus: "We’ve
been through a storm but we’re not defeated. We all carry
pain but are ready to move on. We’ll build a new life
together, a safe place for everyone. Building strong foundations so we can stand," they
sang (in Waray, the local language of Tacloban).
I smiled. They were singing Tindog Kita ('Rise Together' in English), a song by IOM about
how to build back safer after Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in November
2013. They knew the words and liked the melody. This was a real-life test of our
communications campaign and it was working.
Read on
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