By Crislyn Felisilda, Field Communications-Mindanao
As tropical storm Washi (local name Sendong) hit Northern Mindanao, 10-year old Aiza woke up to the torrential rains and strong winds fearing something bad was going to happen.
At 9:00pm, Aiza along with her grandmother, mother and one-year old sister were already asleep in their small house along the river in Sitio Cala-Cala, Balulang Cagayan de Oro City. Her brother and father were away working as farmers in a nearby town.
At 10:00pm, the water began to rise. Aiza couldn’t see her surroundings as it was dark and the power was cut off. All she heard was children and residents crying out for help. She recounts, “I was holding my sister so tight,” Aiza shares, “Although she couldn’t talk yet but I felt she was so scared.”
As the waters rose and the current gained strength, Aiza was able to find safety by climbing up on the roof of their house, while holding her baby sister. “I didn’t know how I managed to climb up while holding Trixy. It was raining so hard. Trixy was crying and we both felt so cold. But I was praying hard not to let go of my baby sister,” recounts Aiza. “It was a miracle. I didn’t know how it happened.”
Aiza is just one among the many children affected by tropical storm Sendong who have lost loved ones including parents. In disasters such as these, children are most vulnerable. World Vision aims to help them through Child Friendly Spaces. Send your help now!
Thankfully, after two hours, nearby residents began their rescue efforts. “The water current was so strong. I held on to a rope given by other residents whom I didn’t know. We were nearly swept away,” Aiza recounts.
As Aiza reached a safer place with Trixy, she remembered her mother and grandmother. At a distance she saw people and children crying for help and clinging on for their lives. She watched as many houses were submerged. “My Lola is too old and she doesn’t know how to swim,” Aiza says.
The night passed and there were no sights of her mother and grandmother. The next day, through the search and rescue operations conducted by the government, Aiza found the bodies of her mother and grandmother from the next village. “I didn’t recognize them. And I didn’t want to believe. “I cried so hard. I felt so bad to see them go this way.” cries Aiza.
Aiza’s father, brother and her baby sister join hundreds of families who have found refuge in one of the make-shift evacuation centers in a public school’s basketball court. The school serves as a temporary shelter to more than 700 families.
Aiza shared that it was not the first time that they experienced flood in their village but Typhoon Washi (Sendong) was the worst so far. More than 600 individuals which include a majority of children and women are reported dead while hundreds more remain missing. Houses along the water ways were either seriously damaged or completely washed away.
At the time Typhoon Washi hurled heavy rains, the river in the village was among the many rivers that overflowed. Thousands of homes were flushed into the river, and Aiza’s home was not spared.
World Vision with its partners is working to set up Child Friendly Spaces to address the emotional and psychosocial needs of children such as Aiza and her sisters’. At a Child Friendly Space, children will be provided a safe place for children to be children to help them recover from experiences such as this. School supplies will also be provided to 10,000 children. Send your help now!
World Vision will be reaching out to approximately 10,000 families (50,000 individuals) out of the 22,223 families (119,115 individuals) severely affected by the floods in the hardest hit cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
