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Philippines: Floods - Emergency appeal n° MDRPH010 Operation update n°5 (six-month consolidated update)

Countries
Philippines
Sources
IFRC
Publication date
Origin
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Period covered: 9 August 2012 to 15 February 2013 Appeal target (current): CHF 1,772,243 Appeal coverage: 77 per cent

Appeal history:

· 31 August 2012: An emergency appeal was launched, seeking CHF 1,772,243 to assist 20,000 families (100,000 persons) for seven months

· 9 August 2012: A preliminary appeal was launched for CHF 922,700 to assist 15,000 families (75,000 people) in five months

· Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF): CHF 180,837 was allocated on 9 August 2012 to support the national society to initiate distributions and support assessments.

Summary: This update summarizes the progress made six months after the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an emergency appeal operation, on behalf of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), in response to massive floods brought by southwest monsoon rains in August 2012. Six months on, IFRC has supported PRC in implementing relief activities – food and non-food package distributions as well as providing cash grants for relief – organizing health and hygiene promotion sessions, undertaking water and sanitation interventions, and initiating provision of early recovery support through the conditional cash methodology. This operation has also supported National Society preparedness and capacity building efforts by provision of search and rescue equipment, training and mentoring to staff and volunteers. Since the first day of the disaster, PRC has been active on the ground, initially supporting pre-evacuation and rescue operations. In the wake of the heavy rains, PRC deployed emergency response teams equipped with ambulances, an amphibious vehicle, rubber boats and trucks, which helped to evacuate or rescue some 10,500 persons. PRC also served ready-to-eat meals to some 87,000 persons in evacuation centres.

Six months since the operation was launched, relief distributions have been completed and the focus shifted to providing cash-based solutions for early recovery support. At the conclusion of the relief phase, some 15,900 families (79,500 persons) had received food and non-food packages, including sleeping materials and water storage containers, exceeding the initial target of 15,000 families (75,000 persons). In addition, 10,000 families received hygiene kits. This operation has also supported provision of PHP 3,000 unconditional cash grants to some 500 families who stayed in tent cities for an extended duration to enable them to purchase other basic items, beyond the relief supplies provided by PRC. Complementing relief distributions, PRC also implemented a range of activities in the sector of water, sanitation and hygiene promotion. In this regard, some 4,500 families (22,500 persons) received safe drinking water – exceeding the initial target of 3,000 families – as well as 10-litre jerry cans, i.e. additional to the 15,900 families provided with jerry cans as part of the non-food items (NFI) kit. A total of 4,738 families accessed improved environmental sanitation through debris clearing and garbage cleaning campaigns that were implemented by 2,683 individuals on cash-for-work basis utilizing 200 cleaning kits and 80 drums. Also, some 26,496 families (132,480 persons) were reached with disease prevention and health/hygiene promotion – which exceeded the target of 20,000 families (100,000 persons).

With the relief activities completed, this operation transitioned to the early recovery phase. The National Society is currently providing cash-based solutions to support the early recovery of the flood-affected families. In this regard, a total of 1,000 families have been identified, provided with the necessary orientation and each will receive a PHP 10,000 conditional cash grant for early recovery solutions, including replacing assets and investing to start up or re-start livelihood projects. Distribution of the first instalments of the grants is underway while the second instalment will be provided during the first half of March 2013. Finally, rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities in five schools is underway. This support will contribute to improved access to water and sanitation for evacuees in case of future potential disasters.

Contributions to the emergency appeal have been received from Red Cross Red Crescent partners, government partners and institutional donors. Partners include American Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross Society/Canadian government, Danish Red Cross/Danish government, Finnish Red Cross, Japanese Red Cross Society, The Netherlands Red Cross/Netherlands government, Republic of Korea National Red Cross, Red Cross of Monaco, Swedish Red Cross/Swedish government, and Swiss Red Cross. A substantial contribution was received from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (DG-ECHO) while the World Health Organization/Voluntary Emergency Relief Fund (WHO/VERF) also made a donation.

On behalf of PRC, IFRC would like to thank all donors for their generous contributions to this emergency appeal. Owing to competitive rates offered by contractors engaged to undertake rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities in schools as well as the fact that based on real-time needs assessments, only some 500 families – of the targeted 1,000 – were provided with PHP 3,000 cash grants, the IFRC is able to support the PRC in implementing all activities planned under this operation with the donations received to date. As such, no further contributions from donors are needed. This operation will be completed by 31 March 2013, as planned.