CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Classes resumed here yesterday without the usual lessons and activities as students were greeted with songs and games aimed to “de-traumatize” them from their harrowing experience during the devastation of tropical storm “Sendong.”
“The psychosocial activities were a means to ‘de-traumatize’ students who were affected by the flood. Aside from the fun and games, our teachers also made profiling of their class to check if they have any missing students,” Rosita Cang of the Department of Education (DepEd) Region 10 told The STAR.
Teachers trained by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) were instructed to conduct psychosocial processing among elementary and high school students at the resumption of classes.
To some elementary students who experienced the flood, the classrooms reminded them of evacuation centers cramped with families sharing a small sleeping space and a single toilet.
At the school grounds of the City Central School located downtown, makeshift tents still housed families with nowhere to go.
Fortunately, the flood damaged only one public school in the city, the Balulang Elementary School.
Cang said efforts from international humanitarian organizations and local concerned groups have helped in rebuilding the severely damaged school.
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said over 200 families in evacuation centers in the affected areas have been transferred to temporary shelters.
Soliman said at least 204 families staying in school gymnasiums in the storm-devastated region were transferred to temporary/transitional shelters to decongest schools as classes resumed yesterday.
DepEd said families occupying classrooms in public schools will not be transferred but those staying in covered gyms of public schools are being moved to give space for alternative mode of learning.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the resumption of classes for the more than 22 million public school children all over the country went smoothly, but admitted serious challenges faced by public schools in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan where some schools are still serving as evacuation centers.
Luistro said a major problem that surfaced for public schools in the two cities was the school children’s lack of the most basic learning items such as paper, pencils, bags and reading materials.
He issued a call for donations of the learning tools, saying this problem prevented normal classes from being held in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan schools.
“We also began stress debriefing in those areas as well as a head count of students to know who are still missing,” Luistro said.
As of yesterday, 44 evacuation centers remained open in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.
Soliman said one community kitchen, two multi-purpose huts, and one multi-purpose operation center will be installed at the 3.5-hectare Calaanan Tent City.
Some 408 tents were installed by the Philippine National Police and the Rotary International in the area.
Soliman said Xavier University has offered its five-hectare lot in Lumbia, Cagayan de Oro City as a temporary resettlement area and another five hectares for permanent resettlement.
Likewise, a tripartite memorandum of agreement for the establishment of permanent shelter for Sendong victims in Calaanan is being prepared. The memorandum will be signed by the DSWD-Region 10, Cagayan de Oro officials, and Habitat for Humanity, Soliman said.
As of yesterday, at least 865 individuals - 321 children and 544 adults - had undergone psychosocial processing.
The DSWD has also released 57 child-friendly space kits for psychosocial activities for children while 500 play kits from TV-5 were distributed yesterday.
Leptospirosis cases on the rise
Aside for cramped evacuation centers, the residents also faced the possibility of contracting leptospirosis.
At least 11 people have already died and 283 others were confined in various hospitals in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
DOH Undersecretary Romulo Busuego said epidemiologists are now verifying the report that several people are manifesting symptoms of leptospirosis and the health agency may declare an outbreak of the disease.
Incidents of leptospirosis are usually high during floods.
Busuego said the epidemiologists will no longer wait for the results of laboratory tests to confirm the residents’ illness because this will “take a long time.” Instead, they will base their analysis on the signs and symptoms being exhibited by the patients.
The DOH had earlier declared an outbreak of leptospirosis in 10 barangays in Cagayan de Oro City after recording 200 cases there, including five deaths, from Dec. 1 to 31, 2011.
The affected barangays are Macasandig, Balulang, Consolacion, Bulua, Puntod, Carmen, Iponan, Barangay 13, Kauswagan, and Barra.
Busuego said the DOH had already conducted prophylaxis treatment in affected communities and in evacuation centers in the two cities after the flooding to forestall a leptospirosis outbreak.
He said they received reports that some residents did not take the prophylaxis tablets given to them for unknown reasons, but he also acknowledged that there may be individuals who did not receive the antibiotic.
Pro-exposure prophylaxis for leptospirosis is being recommended by the World Health Organization to prevent outbreaks of the disease as a result of massive flooding during a calamity.
Leptospirosis is caused by a bacteria that can be acquired in flood or soil contaminated by the urine of animals, particularly rats.
The disease is characterized by headache, high fever, muscle aches, chills, conjunctivitis or red eyes, vomiting and diarrhea, which can lead to death when the bacteria attacks vital organs like the kidneys and liver.
Busuego added that leptospirosis symptoms can manifest as early as seven days after exposure to the bacteria.
PCSO funds for patients
Meanwhile, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has released P5.3 million to two government hospitals in Northern Mindanao as endowment fund for medical expenses of all patients seeking treatment for health conditions directly caused by the effects of Sendong.
Jose Ferdinand Rojas II, PCSO general manager, said P4.8 million has been turned over to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro City, and P250,000 for medicine to the Gregorio Lluch Memorial Hospital in Iligan City.
“PCSO will continue to serve the Filipino people’s medical and health-related concerns, especially during times of calamities. In order to do this more effectively, we shall be expanding PCSO’s revenues from games and we ask the public’s support for this” he said.
Rojas said medical assistance to victims of natural calamities is one of the major plans of PCSO for 2012.
He said the agency is set to expand PCSO’s operations in remote and far-flung areas of the country “in line with a directive from President Aquino.”
In a related development, the Interpol General Secretariat (IPSG) offered to help in identifying nameless victims of Sendong.
This, even as the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) is planning to terminate its retrieval operations in a week’s time if no body is recovered from the flashflood debris within the period.
However, NDRRMC and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) chief Benito Ramos said that he would only order the termination of retrieval operations once the ground troops have explored all areas along riverbanks which are believed to contain bodies of missing flood victims.
In a letter to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome, the IPSG, through the Interpol Manila, said it could send additional assistance in Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) for Sendong victims in Northern Mindanao.
“The IPSG through the Interpol National Central Bureau Manila would like to request for specific support needed regarding DVI,” Felizardo Serapio Jr., head of Interpol Manila, said.
DVI is the scientific procedure that involves DNA profiling, fingerprint and dental comparison to obtain conclusive identifications.
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