Posted by Sandy Hutchens
Thirty-four-year-old Mariecel Candole’s life has been turned upside down and things could get even worse for this cbm coworker with a disability, as more storms are expected to hit the Philippines.
When Typhoon Ketsana battered the region in late September, the fast moving flood waters quickly rose around Mariecel in her wheelchair. She watched helplessly as her family’s basics needs for day to day living were literally washed away or completely destroyed. The water rose to her neck before helped arrived.
“It was a horrible nightmare for me,” recalls Mariecel.
Right after the typhoon hit, cbm’s emergency response teams provided Mariecel and her family with food and clothing which helped them to start over again.
cbm is working with victims in the Philippines delivering emergency relief, medicines, counselling, and temporary shelter for Mariecel and other Filipinos with disabilities and their families who have been affected by the disaster. cbm has 40 projects in the Philippines, five of which have been seriously damaged.
When the rains from Typhoon Ketsana first began, Mariecel, who was left physically disabled from polio miletis, wasn’t initially concerned, as heavy rains are normal for the rainy season.
But as the water began lapping over the steps to the family apartment, Mariecel began to worry.
“The rain fell heavily on the roof, and water began coming under the door,” she recalls. “Inch by inch, the floor continued to flood. It looked like a monster.”
As the water swirled around Mariecel in her wheelchair, she and husband, Francis, an amputee, realized the waters were becoming dangerous and that they would need help finding higher ground. Their next door neighbour had a second floor, high enough to provide refuge from the rising flood waters.
The water rapidly climbed to Mariecel’s waist. “All the things in the house were floating, including me!”
Their neighbors came to their aid, helping the whole family over their dividing wall and up to the second floor. Within the 30 minutes it took the Candole family to get to their neighbour’s home, the water had reached Mariecel’s neck.
Clad only in wet clothes, with little food and no electricity to communicate, the Candole family waited out the storm at their neighbour’s, not knowing what was left of their home.
“To see the things we have accumulated over the years, everything lost…pictures, our clothes are gone. Our cabinet collapsed. I am very saddened. My child cannot understand what has happened.”
Mariecel appreciates that her neighbors, family and friends helped as best they could. But it was cbm’s emergency response team that provided her family with food and clothes to help her family start over again.
As an employee of the Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, a livelihood project supported by cbm which trains and supports people with a disability, Mariecel realizes that cbm’s support of people with disabilities has helped many people get through this crisis.
“We feel so blessed. Yet, we don’t feel our lives are back to normal yet. I am still disturbed. At least we’re alive. We are here with friends.”
Mariecel is thankful for the immediate relief, support and opportunity to work which provides her with security for her family.
“We believe that this is just a trial to be a better person. What has been lost is not important. Being attached to material things is not important. We survived and became closer to God.”