Dulag, Leyte –  Nearly six months after Typhoon Yolanda, Girlie Aguilar, is proud that her family has moved on through their determination and unity.

She recalled how they, as one family, helped each other in repairing their partially damaged house using available branches and scrap galvanized iron sheets scattered around their village.

“Nagtulung-tulong na laming magpapamilya – nagpako, nagpukpok, (at) nagtali – para lang maitayo muli ang tahanan namin at kahit papaano ay magkaroon kami ng disenteng tirahan pagkatapos ng bagyo (My husband, children, and I helped fix our damaged house so we can have a safer place to stay),” Girlie recounted.

Girlie is grateful that their town was not badly affected, enabling them to recover faster than the residents of the hardest-hit areas.

She is also thankful that help was also within their reach. Her family received humanitarian aid and relief assistance from the government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), local government, and various organizations. Through the help, the Aguilars were able to meet their daily food needs while repairing their house.

She also recognized the huge support given through the cash grant that her family is receiving through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

Pantawid Pamilya provides cash grants of as much as P1,400 to qualified households as long as they comply to program conditionalities of sending their children to school and to health centers for check up, and attend the regular Family Development Sessions (FDS), a gathering of parent-beneficiaries where they tackle parent effectiveness and homelife.

In Eastern Visayas alone, there are 28,763 household-beneficiaries of the program as of March 2014.

Helping others

More than the cash grants provided by Pantawid Pamilya, Girlie gained knowledge on responsible parenthood, community participation, and leadership through the FDS which she applies in helping others cope with the aftermath of ‘Yolanda’. Girlie is a parent-leader and a barangay health worker.

As  a barangay health worker, she goes around her community distributing vitamins to children. As a parent-leader she regularly reminds her fellow parent-beneficiaries  to take their children to health centers, attend the FDS, and practice what they learn.

She recalled how she went house-to-house to tell her fellow members to prepare for the landfall of  ‘Yolanda’. She reminded them to secure their Pantawid Pamilya documents like ID, cash card, and Talaarawan.

After ‘Yolanda’, Girlie continued to reach out to her peers and asked how they are doing.

She also volunteered in the outreach programs of various non-government organizations (NGOs) like supplementary feeding program, medical mission, and the distribution of school materials to the survivors.

Most importantly, she told her members not to lose hope, and continue believing that everything will soon be better; the same belief that her family held on to. ###