MANILA, Philippines — Every now and then, many find it a valid and tested truism – little things mean a lot.
When disaster or emergency strikes, some small things can be overlooked without realizing that they are just as necessary and crucial both to the victims and rescuers.
Sadly, many a relief organization is blameworthy on such a flounder.
For instance, I know for a fact that most refugee camps and evacuation centers that housed hundreds of Ondoy victims in 2010 did not have a simple utility tool – a can opener.
With tons of donated canned goods, hungry evacuees could not have their first meal in the camp because there was not a single can opener to enable them to get the contents of the canned rations.
Today, the simple can opener has become a “must” in the wherewithal of rescue and relief teams fielded to disaster-prone areas in the metropolis.
These emergency teams have even moved further. I am told many an NGO specifically engaged in relief operations has become imaginative in prioritizing the needs of victims. Realizing full well that such little things come big to sufferers of any disaster.
For example, casualties of typhoon Pedring last year in Central Luzon, particularly in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga which remained underwater for weeks, relief officials discovered the victims did not have access to potable water.
But, lo and behold, GMA-7 relief teams saw that problem. And truckloads of bottled water went around the inundated areas distributing the precious liquid. Those “small things” and more had earlier been simply overlooked.
Not only that. The network also sent mobile bathrooms equipped with shower facilities. Thousands welcomed and enjoyed the refreshing concessions for free, of course, after weeks of “dehins goli!”
GMA-7, likewise provided another housewifey need – it installed laundry or clothes washing counters – a chore that remained undone all the weeks that the floodwater submerged the unfortunate towns and barangays.
And finally the coup – several electric outlets were extended to the water-world communities whose residents needed to charge their cellphones! Just imagine the relief the victims felt when their mobile phones suddenly went back to work!
And what do you know, ABS-CBN also went into a “portable bathroom” project. Last Tuesday, January 24, the network sent mobile shower rooms to evacuation centers in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City.
And judging from the happy and refreshing reaction from residents as shown in TV news clips, they were gratified to have a bath after weeks of going around smelly and pongy!
Incidentally, while perorating on small things that count, here is one eyebrow-raising innovation that now has become a permanent fixture:
In the early 1970’s, I was writing a regular column in a national weekly magazine on the emerging hospitality industry of the Philippines in that era. To widen my topic coverage, I wandered into a hotel seminar on hotel management as an observer.
A noted resource person told his audience that one of his innovations as an assistant general manager of a big hotel was installing a dispenser of feminine napkins. It was a need of many a traveling female tourist that hotels at the time were not equipped. Or, they simply overlooked it as a hotel service.
Today such a small, little dispenser is a big convenience to female hotel guests anywhere in the world.
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