A big help to me

When tropical storm Nalgae hit the Philippines on October 28, 2022, Arman was not at home. The 32-year-old husband and father of four was working at a construction job in another town about five kilometres from his home in Sitio Baloy in Maguindanao province.

When he saw how bad the storm was, Arman was so worried about his family’s safety that he swam home through flood waters to be with them.

“I didn’t think about my own safety that time because I was worried about my family,” he said.

Thankfully, his wife and four children were able to evacuate to a nearby relative’s house. “I was happy because I saw they all were safe,” he said.

Their house was standing, but they couldn’t live in it—the home was filled with mud and everything they owned was damaged by the flood.

Arman and his family were among the over 100,000 people in the Philippines displaced by the storm, which also resulted in over 60 deaths.

In response, Plan International implemented a six-month response to help meet the most urgent needs of affected families in Maguindanao.

With support from the Canadian government through the Humanitarian Coalition, our member Plan International provided cash to meet immediate food and non-food needs, along with rice, hygiene kits, water kits, infant kits, menstrual hygiene management kits, teacher’s kits and back-to-school learning kits, together with other assistance.

The cash assistance was a big help, not only enabling families to meet basic needs but also providing a boost to local economies severely affected by the storm. The money was used for things like food, home repairs and for inputs to jumpstart farming and fishing livelihoods.

For Arman’s family, the cash and other assistance was gratefully received since he was not able to get back to work immediately after the storm. They used the money to buy food, pay for the children’s school needs, and replace some of their possessions damaged by the flood.

“There is a lot of help from Plan,” Arman said, noting the soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, water containers, rice and cash.

The cash helped him to pay for school for his children, along with other household items.

“The rice was a big help because all our rice was wet,” he said, adding “Plan was a big help to me.”