A mother's storyand The forgotten crises

DATU SALIBO, Maguindanao -- My wish is for my children to be able to finish school and that we would have rice to eat, says Lilang.Lilang, 35, lives in a small dilapidated shack raised three feet above the waters of the Liguasan Marsh in the Province of Maguindanao. We have been living here in the evacuation area for two years already. We had to leave our own home because government forces and the BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) often had armed encounters, Lilang explains. sand//scontent.fmnl4-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/16809703_10210761896357242_1617367518_n.jpg?oh=8541efaf75f8afc485edd5a6ca0523c9andampoe=58B3517A (Lilang, weaves a mat made of Pandan leaves. Since her family has been
relocated to an evacuation site due to continuing armed conflict in her
village, she has been weaving mats for a living. She earns only 40 pesos per
piece which she weaves for two days.) One time we had to flee in the middle of the night without any flashlight, walking through the woods and knee-deep waters, just to get here in town. I was really afraid for my children because the fighting grew more and more intense, she added. Lilang’s family has already been displaced three times because of armed conflict. The first time was during a clash in a neighbouring town of Midsayap where they temporarily lived in the year 2000. Then another fight broke in 2008 when peace negotiations between the Moro rebels and the government collapsed. Finally, in 2014 they were again caught in a crossfire between the BIFF and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in their present residence in Sambulawan.At the height of the military operations against the rebel group operating in Sambulawan, Lilang and her family were eventually forced to relocate and in the process lost their all their property, including their house, crops, and farm animals. This situation has deprived her family of the chance to earn decently and her children of their right to grow up in a safe environment. It has also made livelihood extremely difficult for Lilang because they do not have any capital to invest for a sustainable income. We have not seen our local officials. We just know he [mayor] is in the nearby city. Sometimes we hear news that help is coming but we know that those are not coming from the government but from NGOs (Non-Government Organizations). We feel that we are being left to fend for ourselves and that the government is not taking good care of us, she says. In order to feed her family and keep her children in school, her husband drives a rented tricycle for public transportation while Lilang weaves mats made of pandan ( Pandanus amaryllifolius ) leaves to sell. Her husband earns 100 pesos a day while she earns 120 pesos a week. We do not earn a lot to buy enough food. My husband can only work when the weather is good. But he cannot work whenever it floods here due to heavy rains, just like the other week. When he cannot work, then that is the time I weave mats just so we can buy rice. Mat weaving is hard labour because it causes me back pains that is why I cannot do it as often as I want to. I also have to take care of my children, Lilang says.Lilang’s family receives money through the 4Ps Program, the government’s conditional cash transfer scheme for families living in poverty. But even this is not enough to sustain their daily needs as she receives only a small amount from the government. This compelled her to find another source of living through mat weaving. Early in the morning, the first thing I do is make my children’s bed then clean the house while cooking breakfast, Lilang says. When the children have gone to school, that’s when I start weaving mats. Because of poverty, Lilang often loans money from her neighbours and at times even food from a nearby store just to provide for her children. She admits that there are times when she had to make porridge out of what little is left of their rice. Although she knows that their diet is not nutritious enough for her children, she says she would rather give them a little than hear her children cry of hunger. What is important for us is rice. Sometimes if I have some spare money, I buy vegetables worth five pesos or some fish or loan some [instant] noodles from the store. We do not eat three times a day every day but I always make sure the kids will have something to eat so they would not cry, she adds.It is not only livelihood and malnutrition that Lilang’s family struggles with since they moved to the relocation site. For two years now, the community has been plagued with water-borne diseases commonly leading to diarrhoea among children and adults alike. The entire village’s main source of water are open wells and hand water pumps. Just last week, the water level of the marsh rose then two of my children started having diarrhoea. Even us adults suffered, too, so we suspect that it must have come from the water we drink. Because of this, we had to buy our drinking water. It’s an additional expense for us but that is our only option for now, she says. sand//scontent.fmnl4-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/16808379_10210761894957207_1553650117_n.jpg?oh=8e27c327165a157814d2f2b52b2bbc40andampoe=58B26A3E Pandan leaves, used for mat weaving, are left to dry under the sun
before they can be used. To create a single mat, Lilang has to shell out 20
pesos for the leaves and another 20 pesos for dye. Lacking a stable source of safe drinking water. They have to buy drinking water from a peddler coming from outside their village amounting to five pesos per gallon. Their family stretches their one gallon of water to 5 days. But once water supply runs out, they are forced to get water from an open well. Somebody taught me to let my children drink coffee to relieve the stomach pains and diarrhoea, she confessed. Lilang’s family received a food package consisting of rice, soap, toothbrushes, and other basic care products, through the project Integrated Support to the Affected Population of the Forgotten Crises in the Philippines . The project, funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection – Humanitarian Implementation Plans (ECHO-HIP), aims to address issues on food security and livelihoods, water sanitation and hygiene, health, and nutrition among the poorest residents of the region. We did livelihood mapping. We mapped out their existing livelihood activities and based our prioritization of support on that, says Save the Children’s Norsalam Bago. The priority activities in this area are fishing, duck-raising, and oil-making. Coconut oil is also part of their culture so they can sell it and use it the same time. The community is currently experiencing food crisis due to the recent El Nino. To make matters worse, it is now the rainy season and torrential rains are expected to cause massive flooding. This makes farming and fishing difficult in the area, Norsalam adds. For now we have prioritized the distribution of food in all our impact areas to alleviate hunger because this has been their primary concern. We will also be providing them with the necessary support to answer their needs in food security, livelihood, water sanitation and hygiene, health, and nutrition. Though Lilang received a sack of rice and some other goods for now, she still dreams of having a more stable source of income for her family. If only we have enough money for capital, I would like to have a store and sell some vegetables, like onions, tomatoes, garlic, and ginger. It’s what’s sellable here because those vegetables are not readily available in this area, she says. sand//scontent.fmnl4-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/16788323_10210761896317241_25246367_n.jpg?oh=8fa0e37851b2e2aa717de6481f558fa5andampoe=58B35EE4 (Volunteers distribute food supplies to residents of Barangay Sambulawan,
where Lilang lives, as part of the Save the Children’s commitment to help the
poor communities in the war-torn province of Maguindanao.) My dream is for my children to finish their studies. For as long as I can, I will help my children succeed. Also, I hope that someone will help us rebuild our lives should we get back to our own home, she says. The Integrated Support to the Affected Population of the Forgotten Crises in the Philippines is a project implemented by the consortium of Save the Children and Action Against Hunger (ACF) Philippines. Currently, the project has distributed food packages among its impact areas in different municipalities across the province of Maguindanao and has mapped out key livelihood opportunities for the succeeding months of the project. The project aims to help residents by building the capacity of affected communities in terms of food security and livelihood, water sanitation and hygiene, health, and nutrition.