Emergency Relief

The relocation site of Santa Rosa, Laguna

When we approached the site yesterday afternoon I was not sure what to expect: what would be the living conditions on that site, how many people do live there, what are the circumstances after the floods and so on. -Thankfully I was together with some of my new co-workers from UPA which made it more easy for me to get adjusted...

The site consist out of several communities, some are smaller, some are bigger, but all came from a background of forced evictions since they used to live in cheap shanties along the railways between Manila and Santa Rosa, coming from five different cities in Metro Manila. All together we are talking about 7.000 families- that means approx. 25.000 people! All of them got relocated in the year 2008, most in groups of several hundred people. The government paid for the buses, the few things they considered as furniture where transported by buses. None of them wanted to get moved, and none of them was giving a choice.

The compound is gigantic- organized in blocks all the houses look the same (the houses usually consist out of a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom, barely any windows and just the plain walls and floor), there is only on the major streets a proper pavement, no sidewalks or street lightening.Of course you won't see any colour on the walls, art in the streets or any other feature making this entire place less depressing. For me, it reminded me on a never ending ghetto, a labyrinth with no exit.

Of course is living there not for free, even tho they could never choose to go there in the first place: families have to pay for the housing 165.000 Pesos (a bit more than 3.000 Euros) in 30 years, plus electricity and water, for many a challenge not possible to conquer. If they have an income it is generated by the breadwinner who is either way commuting or lives in the bigger cities and comes for the weekends home. However, since those families can easily consist out of 6-8 children money is always a big issue. Also do the breadwinner have sometimes a second family in the cities, which can cause them to abandon the primary family in the relocation sites, something which is happening not rarely. Also not rarely happening are domestic rapes, based upon the fact that all people live together in one room.

Next to the issues related to joblessness, poverty and hunger other conditions are also reason for concern: there is only one elementary school and one highschool on the site, meaning that a class usually consists out of 80 students. Also does the relocation site have only one health center with one physician, again we are talking about a population of 25.000 people!

Because of all those circumstances, many people sell their homes and move back to other squats in Metro Manila, initializing the limbo of squatting, forced eviction, relocating and squatting again...

The Relief

Background for the operation is the heavy monsoon and the flooding in the aftermath of it. The community we went to was flooded for more than a month. The drainage clocked and the rainwater mixed up with the contaminated waste water causing the entire city to stink. The smelly sludge stood kneedeep in the streets and houses of the people, causing severe sickness. When we arrived the water was gone, but the community far away from recovery.

The relief we had with us was sponsored by the wife of a senator which is running several restaurants in Manila. It consisted out of rice, some meat and a pair of flipflops...
You can argue if a relief operation like that even makes sense. What is the point of spending money on such a little amount of food that the families can perhaps cook only one meal out of it instead of spending it for a more sustainable solution? However, that is also the idea of UPA, but many more wealthy people want to donate and approach UPA since it is so well linked to the affected areas. The major goal of UPA is empowerment, not dependency. But still- after seeing this huge line of people, hungry and happy about every little amount of food they could get for free it is not this easy to sustain the argument...

For me the saddest part was when the supplies where depleted and still people in line...telling them they should come back in a month is a very hard thing to do!