BY: REY ANTHONY H. CHIU
TAGBILARAN CITY, March 8 (PIA)— Owing
to the identified gap in information which should assure earthquake victims of
help them stand up and rise, he Philippine Information Agency in Bohol with
international humanitarian groups led by International Organization for
Migration (IOM) conducted Focused Group Discussions (FGD) in earthquake
affected towns.
IOM, the camp coordination and camp
management cluster (CCCMC) head in the cluster approach of the Provincial
Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council’s recovery plan, saw the need of the
FGDs after a series of surveys among evacuation camps settlers.
On top of the questions camp settlers
asked are shelter and relocation, food, livelihood, water, sanitation and
hygiene, health, security and protection, education and camp coordination and
management.
This came too after survey places
government as top of the sources of information which communities rely,
while radio and newspapers rank as high medium.
“Will we get a shelter that can survive
coming calamities?” asked Ramon Albana, a senior citizen tent dweller of Maria
Rosario, Inabanga.
“We have problems if skin diseases,
colds and cough at the camp, who can help us?” asked Marilyn Marcojos of Ubojan
Camp.
Questions like these which can easily
be responded, but with no one looking at them, makes things complicated, admits
Giano Libot, communications specialist at IOM.
IOM communications specialists Christie
Joy Bacal and Libot bared what they noted as information clog at certain levels
in local governance and it failing to trickle to communities that would want to
know what is happening.
To fill in the gap, IOM and the
PIA-Bohol drafted plans to bring information to where they are most
needed at the evacuation sites where some 1850 persons still wonder what
will happen to them.
With information gap remaining hugely
wanting from government to quake victims, PIA-Bohol along with IOM
conceptualized a link through an off station Kapihan sa PIA with Pulongpulong
sa Komunidad.
It is an engagement venue for International
Organizations, Local Governments, National Agencies in Disaster Response and
quake victims to bring the gap to a close, explained IOM Christie Bacal.
It’s a two way process, for the
community to push their issues and concerns and then it becomes the
government’s venue of determining other possible areas of help, explains the
PIA to shelter residents of Ma. Rosario Inabanga, during the first Pulongpulong
on March 4.
On its second Pulong pulong in Ubojan
Camp in Tubigon, representatives of 142 families in camp also continue to
wonder what will happen to them.
The forums which are aired on delayed broadcast cover 8 other
camps in Bohol and decide from there if there is more to get to other camps,
organizers said. (mbcn/rahc/PIA7-Bohol)