Those Red Boxes Quietly Went to Work!

Seconds after the earth shook last 06JUL2017, power was gone in all of Eastern Visayas (Region VIII), and even beyond. It did not come back fast as the main grid was badly damaged, and the aftershocks were making everything worse. As we write this story, power is not even fully restored. The region is still under rotational power outages, though the periods are getting shorter.

We thought of hopping by at some of our beneficiary communities, to see for ourselves how they are coping with the new calamitous situation - since we know, we are still way too far towards full recovery from Yolanda.

And, we found our 'quiet' hardy red boxes all seriously at work!

"Red boxes"? Ah well, that's a sobriquet we gave to the "Generator Sets" that we distributed to a number of health facilities in the Yolanda-affected corridor of Eastern Visayas! Yup, still under ADB JFPR Grant9175, Component B, implemented by DOH 8 :)

Here's a photo of one of those gensets:

Here's another photo showing the machine's size compared to people:

While some of these 'red boxes' have already gone to work as early as days after delivery (sometime 2016 until early 2017), many were put to really serious work after the July 6 earthquake. Quietly they do!

Quiet? Yes, almost even 'silent' haha! This new kind of genset has its own noise-reduction 'whatevers' built to the insides of that bright-red casing! How quiet? At about 3 meters, you can hardly hear it. Go a bit farther and you'll hear nothing of its engine whirring!

How helpful are these machines? Well, we did not really truly feel how critical a generator set would be to a rural health unit, until we went around to see and hear the health workers themselves thanking and telling us how big a problem they would have to face during these power outages without our red boxes! Nakakataba ng puso!

Here are some snippets:

In Mayorga, the machine sits at the very entrance to their RHU (eye sore?), but health personnel there say they'll soon find a place for this big little red box! A nurse told us how important power is to their many freezers and she beamingly told us: "plus, nakakanood kami ng Eat Bulaga kahit black out buong Mayorga"!

At Javier, the jolly PHN told us "sir, silent and heavy duty yan, salamat talaga sa tulong nyo, lalo na ngayon meron kaming bagong-panganak"! She invited us to see the mother and baby but we declined! Haha, the last time we were in this facility to check on the delivery of emergency and maternity kits, there was also a "bagong panganak" and they showed us they used the 'baby mitten' on the cute little new born and gave 'maternity pads' to the indigent mother!

Tunga RHU became a popular destination amongst townspeople during power outages, even with their executives! Why? Because these folks all need to have their gadgets charged, and the RHU kindly allows them to!

At the Capoocan RHU, after watching them reload fuel unto the running machine, we were told of so many things to be constantly refrigerated, (vaccines, meds, blood, etc etc), that without power, they would all go to waste.

Here are more of our observations:

At General MacArthur (Leyte), health personnel told us "its rest time for the generator sir, and the crudo has also just arrived"!

Likewise at Abuyog RHU1, their 'red box' was at rest with personnel telling us "3 to 6pm po ang brownout namin sir para makapahinga ang generator"!

Well, Jaro's red box is for 'emergency during emergency use only' laughs one of the municipal employees. Why? Because the red box that we gave is only used for the 3 or 4 hour periods in a day when the bigger yellow genset of the LGU has to rest. Yes, their big yellow thing can provide power to the whole municipal compound, including the RHU. But when it must rest, the RHU turns their red box on for continuity of power - at the RHU only!

Pastrana RHU's genset was hard at work when we visited. We were even still across the road and the nurse who saw us was already shouting her gleeful praises for the "not noisy" generator. Oh well, they have already built a nice "cage" for their unit. Nice!

When we reached Leyte, Leyte's RHU, we learned that they only use it at night... because the town was fortunate enough to already have consistent electric power during the day. At night? Ah yes, there are patients hehe, we almost forgot!

Barugo RHU had a wonderful story. Health workers there told us there's only a few gensets in the whole town. They also learned from the LGU's electrician that the power emanating from this, our 'red box', is more than what the whole RHU needs. Thus, the RHU decided to share this to the public! How? They connected some extension wires with electrical sockets spread just outside the entrance, and voila, FREE gadget charging for the whole town to take turns at! We salute you Dr. Calzita and staff!

Okay, we are going to check out other health units where we gave our silent red boxes, soon. But as of the moment, we already breathe with satisfaction... that things we gave have actually started becoming useful to our happy recipients! "We do not value the sun for its height, but for its use"! So said a journalist of long ago!

By the way, if you wanna know where these generator sets are? These can be found at:

Abuyog RHU1, Barugo RHU, Capoocan RHU, Isabel RHU, Jaro RHU, Javier RHU, Leyte RHU, Matag-ob RHU, Mayorga RHU, McArthur RHU, Merida RHU, Ormoc-Cogon District Health Center, Ormoc-Curva DHC, Ormoc-Linao DHC, Pastrana RHU, San Isidro RHU, Tabango RHU, Tacloban City Health Center, Tunga RHU, Villaba RHU - all in the province of Leyte. In Samar (Western) you can see these at Basey RHU, Hinabangan RHU, Jiabong RHU, Marabut RHU, Motiong RHU, Paranas RHU; and In Eastern Samar, we gave one each to Balangiga RHU, Guiuan RHU1, Llorente RHU, Quinapondan RHU and Salcedo RHU. Of course if you also have stories or observations on these generator sets, we'd be glad to hear from you!

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Guiuan Mayor Speaks at the 2017 ADB Annual Meeting in Japan

Please click this link to go to the original (source article) at the ADB website:
Building Prosperity in a Changing Asia and the Pacific—Future Role of the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction | Asian Development Bank:




Seminar Summary

For 17 years, the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) has uniquely contributed to poverty reduction and socioeconomic development through project grants and technical assistance. The Government of Japan has contributed $788 million for almost 400 projects in 32 ADB developing member countries (DMCs). The seminar shared how JFPR helped the most vulnerable groups living in poverty, and discussed the fund’s future direction.

In his opening, Masashi Tanabe highlighted 3 key features of JFPR: targeting underserved and the most vulnerable people; support for a wide range of sectors and themes; and great emphasis on innovative and catalytic approaches. A presentation of results from the ongoing JFPR evaluation highlighted two additional features: community-centered approaches, and complementarity with ADB loans.

A panel—comprising representatives from academia, local government, civil society, and a project implementing agency—emphasized JFPR’s direct, lasting support to people as its unique strength and comparative advantage. Examples discussed included the restoration of livelihoods to Filipino people affected by the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan. In Mongolia, JFPR was instrumental in creating an innovative Medicard program that ensured free health services and medicines for the poorest and most vulnerable during the financial crisis, in addition to securing nutrition through a food stamp program. In Bhutan JFPR helped establish effective partnerships between government, NGOs, and private sector to empower vulnerable women and girls.

The panel concluded that JFPR remains as relevant as ever for tackling current and emerging development challenges, recommending a focus on resilience, climate change, and aging society, in the context of transition to middle income country status. Scalability of innovative approaches should be further entrenched by securing government ownership, integration with national programs, partnering with donors, and systematic attention to dovetailing JFPR with other ADB operations. There is a wealth of knowledge that can be systematically harvested from JFPR operations and shared across DMCs.

'via Blog this'

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Profiles: Doc Rommel & P3DM… “For the Future of our Communities”

Persevering with P3DM…
“For the Future of our Communities”
(Says the City Veterinarian of Baybay, on DRR and CCA)

P3DM or ‘Participatory 3-Dimensional Mapping’, was one of the output activities of ADB JFPR Grant 9175 Subcomponent C.1 implemented by DILG 8 through a consortium of three consulting firms CONCEP Inc., GEOS Inc., and ASSURE Inc..

Volunteers put finishing touches on Brgy. Pangasugan's 3D Scale Map, their P3DM Workshop Output

Also known as ‘Participatory 3-Dimensional Modeling’ by other organizations or schools of thought, P3DM was part of the grant project’s Participatory Risk Assessment (PRA) methods for mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) in development planning of beneficiary local governments. P3DM was introduced to 4 barangays as pilot activities, in the hope that the LGUs would on their own replicate the fun but useful activity in their other barangays. One such pilot barangay was Pangasugan, in the City of Baybay, Leyte.

The quoted title of this article is from/by Dr. Rommel Gonzaga, the Baybay City Veterinarian. He said that at one of the many workshops conducted to capacitate 30 local governments in Region VIII towards mainstreaming DRR and CCA in their Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUP) and Comprehensive Development Plans (CDP).

“I am doing this neither for myself nor just for our local government to be compliant on the new DILG requirements. Together with my colleagues, we are doing this for the whole city of Baybay, not only to serve the present population, but for the future of our communities. And I intend to keep doing this worthwhile activity, as long as I can, even if, on my own personal capacity…”

Dr. Rommel Gonzaga DVM (front right), poses with some of the P3DM participants and mentors

Why him, the Vet?

“Doc Rommel”, as he is fondly called by the city’s constituents, is a Veterinarian. “By profession, affiliation and designation”, he laughingly shared with us! Not relegating his official ‘vet’ designation, he is also “officially” and willingly the DRRMO-Designate of Baybay City – a city composed of 92 barangays with a population of more than a hundred thousand, on the western seaboard of the island of Leyte in Eastern Visayas (Region VIII). He is into this because he wants to – even passionate about it!

How did he get involved in DRR, CCA, CLUP and things ‘calamity’? Yolanda. He tells us that the super typhoon changed both his personal and professional attitude towards managing communities...

When super typhoon Yolanda struck Region VIII on November 8, 2013 , I was in Baybay City with my family, but my mother, brother, nephew, sister in-law, and her daughter were at our residence in Tacloban during that time. After the typhoon, I did not worry because it did not cause severe damage to the City of Baybay. The day after, I began to hear disturbing news about what happened in Tacloban. I could not contact my family because there was power outage and no communication signal. It was then when I began to worry and felt nervous.

I decided to check my family and went to Tacloban using a motorbike, since I thought that it might be difficult using a car due to fallen debris on the road. My heart began to sink when I saw the devastation while passing through the towns of Mayorga, Dulag, Tolosa, Tanauan, and Palo. Tears welled up in my eyes thinking about my mom and the rest of the family, and what might have happened to them. I saw dead bodies lining the streets, people walking like zombies, and many were begging for food and water. Everything I saw was chaos and confusion.

Finally, I reached my parents’ house. With knees shaking and terror gripping my heart, I was bracing myself for the worst. Then, I saw my mother, brother, his daughter, sister in law, and my nephew all in good shape. Although visibly shaken, tired and hungry, they were all fine. This was the only time since Mayorga, that I breathed a sigh of relief.

Moving forward, after a year from the disaster, there were questions in my mind. It lingered like the pictures of the dead and the chaos that I saw. Why was the government not able to respond immediately? Why was there no [national] authority present? Why were the people not prepared despite early warning from Pag-asa? Hundreds of questions like jack rabbits running through my head, and I found no answers.

Then the national government began its campaign on the strict implementation of RA 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010. I thought bitterly, the law was passed on 2010 and if it had been seriously implemented, the deaths could have been minimized or avoided…, so recounts Doc Rommel.

Baybay City has not created a DRRM Office nor assigned any personnel. When the City Administrator asked who would like to attend the trainings and seminars on DRRM, Doc Rommel did not hesitate to volunteer. After two years of attending these trainings and seminars, he finally found the answers to his questions. His mind opened up and he deeply appreciated the significance of DRRM in the community. According to Doc Rommel, This was when he found his advocacy and the beginning of a journey to a new future.

Thus, Doc Rommel rightfully represented his city to the series of plenary workshops and mentoring sessions conducted by DILG under the ADB JFPR Grant 9175 fund.

Pangasugan P3DM

Doc Rommel eagerly made possible the conduct of P3DM at Brgy. Pangasugan. When the team of consultants headed by P3DM expert himself Dr. Jake Rom Cadag reached the Brgy., residents readily received them and the 4-day workshop went actively well.

This was attended by a cross-section of the barangay's populace – mothers, fathers, almost all of the senior citizens, teenagers, fisherfolk, farmers, land owners, businessmen, teachers, and about 11 children from various grades who were excused from their classes so they could participate. Even the heads and some staff from the DA’s Agricultural Training Institute Eastern Visayas were there as participants. [ATI holds offices inside Visayas State University campus - a part of Brgy. Pangasugan]

    
    
    

        

It was repeatedly stressed that the workshop output, the 3D Scale Model of their barangay, will (among many other uses) help everyone to know the physical characteristics of the whole area, so that everyone knows what to do and where to go during emergencies. It also helps anyone to easily identify demographic distribution, vulnerable locations, access points, etc. And they all know what is meant by each map detail or marker, since they are the ones who decided to use such markers.

    
    

3D Map done, it is yet compared to the latest in technology - the Project NOAH maps (projected)!

Final 'resting place' of the 3D Map: a glass-top table to serve as the barangay's discussion table

On the last day of the Pangasugan P3DM, where participants (the whole barangay, actually) were to present the final output and share their learnings, Doc Rommel invited Captains from other barangays. Two of them came. And, during that closing ceremony, where Pangasugan Brgy. Captain Dexter Magan gamely served lunch with wild boar and frog delicacies of the place, the two visiting/observing barangay captains signified, that they too, would like Doc Rommel to conduct P3DM in their respective barangays.

It happened, and it’s still happening!

True to his word, coupled with interest from other barangays on P3DM, Doc Rommel has since been conducting P3DM at other barangays, and still counting. P3DM was already conducted at Brgy. Sta. Cruz, Brgy. Balao, Brgy, Pomponan, Brgy. Makinhas. Others more have been scheduled or are trying to secure a schedule with Doc Rommel, especially during the summer vacation months where children and their teachers will be available en masse!

One interesting twist that these worthwhile activities are bringing to the city is an unintended increase in knowledge-sharing and camaraderie amongst barangay officials and residents - especially adjacent barangays where upstream & downstream collaboration is crucial. Those who have already done P3DM in their barangays willingly go with Doc Rommel to assist him when conducting it at the next barangays. The city now targets 100% of barangays to do this activity.

Spreading P3DM

Another good news is that, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) with its Regional Director Dr. Vilma Patindol who participated and saw the P3DM output of Brgy. Pangasugan, appreciated the importance of the map, not only on DRR but as well on agricultural aspects. They allocated part of their 2017 training budget for the conduct of P3DM in the entire Region VIII with the help and active support of Doc Rommel!

Beyond P3DM

Unknown to many, the dear city vet is actually also busy with other DRR/CCA-related activities of and for the city. He leads the conduct of Pre-Disaster Risk Assessment Activities (PDRA), Barangay DRRM Planning and Budgeting, Contingency Planning (CP), Incident Command System (ICS) trainings, Barangay Emergency Response Trainings, Establishment of Early Warning System or EWS, Rescue Trainings and Basic Life Support (BLS), Conducts lectures on DRR in schools and universities, Rapid Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis (RDNA) training, DRR trainings of CSOs and volunteer groups and much more. To achieve all these, he actively coordinates with agencies, organizations and iNGOs to help him help his city in terms of disaster preparedness and resilience.

Being the “DRRMO – Designate”, he does not stop his yearning to learn more so he can help his city. He is already a graduate of All Hazard Incident Management (AHIM) and a member of the Incident Management Team (IMT) of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD). His first disaster deployment was in 2015 when Typhoon Nona hit hard on Northern Samar. He also heads the district 5 DRRM cluster which includes the Municipalities of Mahaplag, Hindang, Hilongos, Bato, and Matalom. He created and now leads the Baybay Emergency Response Unit (BERU) where volunteers have been and are being trained in various emergency incidents. Baybay City being a coastal settlement, with one of the tallest mountain ranges behind it, his city has to be prepared to all kinds of scenarios. Check-out his facebook posts! They have had fire-drills, WASAR, night mountain rescue, shake drills, cave/underground rescue and so on!

Ending our conversation, Doc Rommel expressed his gratitude to a lot of agencies, organizations, CSOs and iNGOs, especially ADB JFPR for opportunities to further equip him with DRR/CCA matters. But we do thank him for the unwavering dedication and real drive to help his city.

He does have other more intimate matters to attend to everyday. Doc Rommel, now 45 years old is married to Cristy Esparaguera a beautiful Samarnon who runs her own online business. They are blessed with three children, two daughters and one son. The family loves to travel with swimming and snorkeling as their fondest activity. At times, these bonding moments have to be put on hold, in favor of the many roles Doc Rommel have to attend to.

Our hats off to you Doc Rommel!

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Gearing Towards Better ‘Land Use Plans’ after Yolanda – Part 1

The Department of Interior and Local Government is conducting a series of technical consultation workshops, where representatives of 30 Local Government Units (LGUs) from the Yolanda-affected areas of Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) were invited as participants. These workshops aim to guide and support LGUs in formulating risk-informed Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUPs) and Comprehensive Development Plans (CDPs) by mainstreaming climate and disaster risk assessment results consistent with CLUP and CDP Guidelines and the provisions of DILG MC No. 2015-77.

The first workshop, held 13-17JUN2016 at Leyte Park Hotel in Tacloban, focused on honing skills of the LGU representatives on the use of a free Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application, in order for them to visually illustrate their respective LGUs’ land use plans that they are going to develop during this series of workshops.

The rigid weeklong workshop was actually not enough! Some of the participating LGUs were unable to finish their required outputs. But coaching sessions were readily scheduled at partner state universities to further the learnings of these 30 LGUs. Experts and trainers divided them into 3 clusters for dedicated and more focused mentoring sessions.

= / = / = / =

27JUN2016, Cluster 1, composed of representatives from Eastern Samar municipalities of Giporlos, Guiuan, Salcedo, Quinapondan, Gen. MacArthur, Hernani, Llorente, Balangkayan and Maydolong, attended their first coaching session at Eastern Samar State University (ESSU) with just the town of Mercedes missing the opportunity.

28JUN2016, Cluster 2, composed of representatives from Daram, Talalora, Sta Rita and Villareal towns all in (Western) Samar and Capoocan, Carigara, Tunga, San Miguel and Babatngon towns in Leyte, attended a similar coaching session held at Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU) in Tacloban City.

While on 29JUN2016, Cluster 3, composed of representatives from Alang-alang, Baybay City, Burauen, Dagami, Jaro, Javier, Julita, La Paz, Pastrana, Sta. Fe and Tabontabon had their own coaching session also at EVSU.

Via the dedicated coaching sessions, participants are accorded more time to learn more knowledge and practice their skills on climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, geographic information systems (GIS) and various software applications such as Quantum GIS (QGIS). Their outputs from the first workshop and these mentoring sessions become their inputs and tools in succeeding workshops.

Also in attendance as participants of these activities are representatives from each of the provincial planning and development offices of the provinces of Eastern Samar, (Western) Samar and Leyte. They play crucial roles towards attaining risk-informed CLUPs and CDPs since they consolidate and plan for the province-wide versions. Likewise, taking active participation are experts from the 3 partner state universities (ESSU, EVSU and VSU) as they are envisioned to perpetuate this approach for other LGUs in Region VIII, perhaps even to the rest of the country.

This series of activities are part of DILGs project deliverables as implementing agency in what is called “Sub-component C1: Resilience by mitigating vulnerability causes related to land use management, management of critical assets, and disaster preparedness” under a grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) managed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) called “Grant 9175-PH: Emergency Assistance and Early Recovery for Poor Municipalities Affected by Typhoon Yolanda”.

A consortium of 3 consulting firms (CONCEP, GEOS and ASSURE) is the implementing partner of DILG on this effort. They provide expert facilitators and mentors on ground to implement the program.

This sub-component does not only seek to educate and train participants from the 30 LGUs. It will also provide equipment to each participating city, municipality, provincial office and partner state university, to ensure that all are properly equipped with needed software and hardware towards creating risk-informed CLUPs and CDPs where climate and disaster risk assessments are already mainstreamed.

Here are some videos:

The second workshop is coming!

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Sub-component C.1 Takes Off!

Grant 9175's Sub-component C.1 (Resilience by mitigating vulnerability causes related to land use management, management of critical assets, and disaster preparedness) took off yesterday (13JUN2016) with an Orientation Program for representatives from the 30 Beneficiary Local Government Units, at the Leyte Park Hotel in Tacloban City.

The simple and quick program was opened by Atty Cyril Casey Blanco, DILG8 Regional Legal Officer & Concurrent OIC-Chief, in behalf of Regional Director Dr. Pedro A. Noval. In his welcome address, Atty. Blanco informed the participants that this sub-component of ADB JFPR's Grant 9175 is an opportunity for the beneficiary LGUs to once and for all make their Comprehensive Land Use Programs (CLUPs) and Comprehensive Development Plans (CDPs) updated and strengthened by incorporating DRR and CCA measures using modern approaches such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies.

Coming all the way from DILG's Central Offices, Asst. Director Dennis Villasenor of the Bureau of Local Government Development, in behalf of its Director Anna Liza F. Bonagua, made a presentation on the expected roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in this ADB-funded project. Encouraging commitment from all present, AD Villasenor said this is not even for the good of DILG, but entirely for the benefit of the respective LGU's constituents to ensure resilience, being a disaster-prone region of the country. His presentation included not only the provincial governments, but even the roles of the academe and the private sector, who were duly represented, along with other cooperating agencies like OCD, NEDA, Business Chamber, etc.

Methodologies, approaches and expected outputs were then discussed by Architect Nathaniel Von Einsiedel, the Project Team Leader of the consulting firm that will execute the project deliverables in these 30 beneficiary local government units affected by super typhoon Yolanda(Haiyan). This consulting firm is a consortium of CONCEP, GEOS and ASSURE dedicating experts in the field of land use planning, geographic information systems, and social development.

Hosted & moderated by Dindo Mengote, Grant Management Unit's (GMU) Stakeholder Engagement & External Relations Expert (SEERE) of ADB JFPR, the 'short' orientation program became engrossingly active during the Q&A portion where enthusiastic participants did not only ask about project details and/or approaches, but they even shared their respective experiences or unique LGU conditions. The zest to know and share more from participants tended to manifest affirmation of their commitment to support and do their respective roles in this sub-component's activity details. To which all affirmed, by taking part in the ceremonial signing of the commitment board for stakeholders!

As implementing agency, the DILG is actively pursuing successful completion of this project so it can be emulated by other LGUs, not only in Region VIII, but the country. On hand to support the program were other DILG Central, Regional and Provincial Officers like Jenifer Galorport, Local Development Planning Division Chief of the BLGD, Adrian Colasito, the DILG Regional point person for this project, and Jude Villero, DILG Provincial Director for Eastern Samar.

Also in attendance were ADB Staff and Consultants. There are 3 consultants (Arvi Miguel, Susan Rachel Jose and Eugene Napisa, each with their own areas of expertise) dedicated to this sub-component alone, while the rest of the GMU Consultants Cathy Vidar, Anna Almodiel and Dindo Mengote were also present to support the proceedings. Olive Rillo from ADB Philippine Country Office also came to oversee the conduct of this initial activity.

This morning program/launch was immediately followed by the "1st Technical Consultation Workshop", a 5-day in-house workshop on the initial ground activities of this sub-component's deliverables.

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Young woman dreams to be a police officer, for family, community

"If I weren't able to enroll in college last year, maybe I would have committed suicide," recounts 20-year old Ivy from Balangiga, Eastern Samar. Looking back to 2015, Ivy recalled the challenges her family went through on her last year in college--the uncertainty for her to finish college. Not meeting the minimum required grades, she transferred from a state-funded to a private college in the city. From Php 7,000 per semester, her tuition fee spiked to more than its double. Her father, a motorcycle driver, and her mother, who maintains their sari-sari store, barely made ends meet for their family of five. They could not afford a private-school education for Ivy. Her parents suggested for Ivy to stop. She understood her family's situation, but she could not give up her dream to finish her education. There were only two semesters left. In Ivy's family, no one has ever graduated college. Her older brother reached college but did not finish a semester. In her barangay with a population of 426 according to 2015 Census of Population, only a handful have finished college. "I had to enrol. I want to set an example to my sisters, my cousins and my community. I want to show them that I finished college despite the difficulties. And if I can do it, so can they." Her parents understood why Ivy was persistent. Even if it meant being in debt, they found a way to support her first semester. Even if she adjusted living in the city and away from family, she endured with the goal of receiving a diploma in mind. Every time she went home, she felt even more motivated because of overwhelming support of her community. Some neighbours would help her with her home works. Second semester came. But supporting her education remained to be a challenge. When their family was identified to be part of the cash-for-work programme under Asian Development Bank's-Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction Grant 9175 Subcomponent A2 grant, her parents knew it was exactly the kind of support they need. Through the programme, her father rendered service for Php260/day, an amount hard to get by as a motorcycle driver. For 30 days, he assisted with the rehabilitation of their barangay's water system and earned a total of Php 7,800. They used it to pay for Ivy's tuition for her last semester. And as graduation came closer, she found a deeper appreciation of her degree. "Before I just wanted a diploma. But transferring to a new school and knowing the sacrifices of my family made dream more. I realized that I didn't just want to graduate. I want to pass the board exam and become a police woman." With new goals in mind, she studied hard on her last semester. Then the fateful day of her graduation came. Ivy received flowers from the school, she gave it to her mother and said, "This is for you." Holding back her tears, her mother accepted feeling fulfilled. "Through the cash-for-work programme, Ivy graduated," says her mother Rose. In college, she learned the value of protecting others. Now, as a Criminology graduate, people look up to her. "I know people will approach me in case of emergencies." To develop her skills, she participated to the first batch of the Emergency Response Team (ERT) training facilitated by the Eastern Samar Emergency Response Search Rescue team of Eastern Samar Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office. She learned emergency management, first aid, basic life support and water search and rescue. Eager to keep on learning, she volunteered to be a co-trainer for the 2nd batch of the ERT training. "Being part of the training as a participant and a co-trainer helped me improve my skills as a responder," she shares. The ERT training aims to increase the capacity of communities against disasters and calamities through skills development. It is under the Disaster Risk Reduction component of the grant. She is now preparing for the Criminology board exam scheduled on September. She is equally nervous and excited. "When I become a police woman, I want to be assigned in the field. I want to help my family, my relatives, and my village and to be of service of others," she says. With that in mind, she is more committed to reach her dream not only because her family is supporting her. The whole village is cheering her on.   Looking back to 2015, she knows the challenges in her life made her the stronger woman she is today. Looking back, she smiles. After all, there are so many things in life worth smiling for--worth living for.

Should you have any suggestions and stories to share, feel free to contact Karen.Alcober@plan-international.org

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