Typhoon Odette — A Photo Series (Part 3)
Light, water, and comfort
If you haven’t read Part 2. Click here
We had returned in January 2022 to bring some more goods: solar lanterns, water filters, and hammocks. The coverage for this operation was wider than the previous. From Maasin to Tomas Oppus.
The previous relief operations had us distributing bottled water. Though helpful for the short term, bottled water was not the sustainable option moving forward.
Waves4Water was generous enough to donate a few of their filters to our cause, solving the issues people were facing with water-borne diseases. Diarrhea and E. Coli were on the uptick in the past week.
Most of the areas and villages we were targeting were those far off from the main highway, as these areas received lesser relief goods compared to those villages exposed on the main roads.
Given the lesser amount of relief goods coming into these barangays (villages), the people here felt the aftermath of Odette more and longer, lengthening the agony so to speak.
The elderly and the children. These were our focus since the start of our operations.
They were the most vulnerable after the storm. The increase in the number of E. Coli victims were concentrated on children and the elderly.
With the help of municipal and barangay health workers, we were able to pinpoint and focus on deploying the water filters in areas with the higher outbreaks of these water-borne diseases.
Free&Easy is a surf brand by our friends Dandoy and Mica in Northern Samar. Through their initiative, they halted all production to focus on making hammocks for Odette victims.
These hammocks proved useful in providing comfort to those who were left without shelter.
68. This round of relief coincided with my mom’s birthday. Our family decided to share the day with the farmer’s cooperative, of which our family is a member of.
My order of solar lights happened to arrive just in time for this as well.
Another focus of our operations was to help the local farmers. Southern Leyte is mostly agricultural. Being able to help the farmers here get right back up meant fast tracking food supplies for the people, and in a macro view, helping with the microeconomy for the better.
