Gordon: PRC steps up aid to Karding-hit provinces
DAYS after Super Typhoon Karding (international name: Noru) ravaged the provinces of Quezon, Aurora, and swaths of Central Luzon, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) intensifies its help to the most severely affected communities, focusing on those whose schools were destroyed and where farmers and fisherfolk lost their livelihood.
“PRC will also provide P5,000 cash as well as non-food items to the affected people there,” said PRC Chairman and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Richard J. Gordon.
“In Burdeos, Polillo Islands, we saw the Burdeos National High School destroyed. Tomorrow, PRC will send help there. I told my staff to prioritize the school so that the children [could] go back to school. We will send CGI sheets there and hire local carpenters to repair the school,” he added.
PRC will also send printers and school supplies to Burdeos National High School.
Gordon emphasized that the Red Cross will provide assistance to the farmers who lost their crops, the fisherfolk who lost their boats, and the thousands of families whose houses were destroyed by Karding.
PRC will give cash assistance to the more than 1,000 farmers and fisherfolk affected in Polillo Islands, Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, and Tarlac. For those who lost their houses, the PRC will distribute tarpaulin in the meantime while CGI sheets and shelter tool kits are being prepared for dispatch.
“Sa mga nagibang mga bahay, magbibigay muna kami ng mga tarpaulin, kasi ‘yung mga yero na ibibigay ay mabibigat, so pansamantala ‘yung mga tarpaulin muna. Pero may yero na darating; at kapag nagbibigay kami ng mga yero, may kasamang martilyo, lagari, pako – lahat na – kumpleto ‘yan, para magkaroon agad ng cover ang mga tao,” Gordon elaborated,” said Gordon.
The country’s foremost humanitarian organization will also give psychological first aid to the children and adults traumatized by the wrath of “Karding”.
“Noong nag-iikot ang Assessment Team ng Red Cross, maraming tao, hindi lang mga bata, pati ang mga matatanda, ang umiiyak. Na-trauma ‘yang mga yan, kaya napakaimportante ng psychosocial support. Malaki ang trauma kasi kapag tinamaan ka ng malakas na bagyo, na akala mo mamamatay ka na,” stressed Gordon.
