The ICRC team visited the area to conduct independent assessments to understand the situation of the returned families. The results showed a need for food assistance since families are restoring their livelihood after long-term displacement.
Majority of them rely on farming and agriculture as their main source of income, but after a year of neglect, their fields would need to be re-tilled and rehabilitated.
One of the major concerns for the distribution was access to the communities located in the highlands where roads are almost impassable and challenging for vehicles.
To reach the beneficiaries, the ICRC rented heavy trucks loaded with supplies and provisions for the returned communities.
Following a long period of displacement, some families had lost their houses. A family from Sitio Bogbog, Barangay Bolhoon, received shelter repair kits from the ICRC. These included shelter-grade tarpaulins, hammer, pick axe and other tools.
The ICRC recently adopted the use of an electronic registration to help ensure that qualified conflict-affected families receive assistance. For this, volunteers from the Philippine Red Cross-Surigao del Sur chapter provided additional manpower, allowing the team to reach 940 affected families from 25 communities in Tago, Marihatag, San Miguel, Lianga, and San Agustin municipalities.
Given the challenging road conditions, forest clearings wide enough to accommodate vehicles served as distribution sites for some communities like this one for the residents of Uranyom, Sitio Magkahunaw in San Agustin municipality.
Families from the small village of Uranyom had to cross the Hubo River while carrying the food rations and hygiene items from the ICRC.
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Going home meant wading through the strong currents of the river, followed by a climb on a steep hill and more than 40-minute walk to reach their village.
Before the distribution of materials, an ICRC staff explained to the community the ICRC’s mandate to protect and assist victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence. The neutral and impartial humanitarian assistance was meant to support the IDPs who have recently returned to their places of origin after a year-long displacement in Tandag City sports complex.
Residents from Sitio Lagangan, Barangay Caras-an in Tago municipality, walked toward a landing to wait for the improvised raft locally known as “gakit”. The concrete bridge that the community used collapsed more than two years ago and since then, the raft became the main mode of transportation for the community.
Residents of Sitio Lagangan, Barangay Caras-an in Tago municipality on board a “gakit”.
Inside a community multipurpose hall in Lianga municipality built under a government project, an ICRC field officer answered questions raised by the conflict-affected families from the villages of Decoy and Manluy-a in Barangay Diatagon.
To help the returning communities start anew, each family received half-month food rations consisting of 25 kilograms of rice, 12 cans of sardines, two liters of cooking oil, a liter of soy sauce, a kilogram of sugar, half a kilogram of salt, and hygiene items.
For their consumption, each family also received seeds of string beans, eggplant, squash, bokchoy (pechay), and bitter gourd (ampalaya) for them to grow in their backyards.
This community leader spent his 82 years in the village tilling his fields. He was most relieved when they were finally able to return home to their barangay and start anew. “It was very difficult to stay in the Oval (sports complex). I fell ill many times because of the extreme heat,” he shared.
About 4,700 people who were displaced for one year due to armed violence in Surigao del Sur recently received substantial support from the Red Cross to rebuild their lives.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with the support of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC)-Surigao del Sur chapter, distributed aid from 13 to 20 October to the mostly indigenous families who returned to their hometowns in Tago, Marihatag, San Miguel, Lianga, and San Agustin municipalities in early September.
