Living in an archipelagic country within the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines has always been vulnerable in terms of earthquakes, volcanic eruption, and surges/tsunami. Also, belonging to a developing country, a pandemic such as the COVID-19 would be a challenge to handle due to still developing health care systems. Not mentioning us belonging as one of the top three polluters of the ocean, worldwide. In addition, Philippines has experience internal conflict for over four decades in which resulted terror and horror to the people. The recent volcanic eruption in Taal, Batangas, storm surge brought by Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban City, Leyte and the siege in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur were the recent events that caused thousands of casualties and fatalities. That is why, Team Annyeong Pilipinas NYVC is here to give Project iCARE. This will revolve on the initiatives that will tackle and instill awareness in terms of safety, health, and environment at home, in school and in the community.

Project iCARE is a 3-month rolling caravan for street children and marginalized schools in three of most vulnerable places in the Philippines that has been greatly affected by volcanic eruption, storm surge, siege, and the pandemic recently - a caravan that will teach our young people on the importance of safety, health, and hygiene practices. This will also share stories on disaster response and what to do in times of catastrophe, especially that the area has just survived the catastrophe, designed on the level of understanding of our beneficiaries. Promotion of safe spaces and sustainable living by caring for the environment will also be one of the modules.

Project iCARE aims to introduce a three-part module to children of our chosen community. Our general objective is to achieve #ZeroCasualty in time of catastrophe and make our beneficiary #AlwaysReady by educating them on things in times of calamity. We will start with three schools/communities in three of the major islands in the Philippines namely, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.



Through #iCARE4Safety, we will teach our beneficiaries awareness in safety at home, in school and in their community by giving them real-life scenarios and materials to always be aware of the dangers in any place and for them to prepare for any safety controls to lessen unsafe conditions. Through #iCARE4Health, we will instill the habit of proper hygiene, WASH and introduce the importance of balanced meals and exercise by coordinating with schools to provide access to handwashing facility and by giving them the importance and awareness of mental health in our wellness. Lastly, through #iCARE4Environment, plant the seed of hope by teaching them proper segregation, recycling, water and energy conservation and tree planting. We will also explain the importance of an environment-friendly lifestyle. The project also includes conducting facilitation of activity for the 300 students, developing, and distributing 300 modules, distributing hygiene and emergency kits, appointing SHE champions in each area and creating partnerships and networks. In addition, we expect the SHE champions to develop ideas and transform this into activities that could benefit their local community.

 

Project Progress

• Identification of areas

The project initially selected 3 areas for the project namely Lemery in Batangas, Tacloban City, and Marawi City. These areas were affected by natural and human-induced disasters such as volcanic eruption, terrorist attacks and conflicts, and typhoon. Moreover, the team decided to include the Payatas as one of the areas to be included. Payatas landslide incident that was happened last July 10, 2020 in which resulted the destruction of 100 squatters' houses, caused at least 218 people’s life and 300 missing persons. However, it was suggested that the official figures may rise to 1,000. Plus, Payatas as part of the city where the pandemic is concentrated in the country.

• Partnerships

The team has conducted several consultative meetings with our partners. Set of letters of partnership and invitation were sent last July 2020. Partners are categorized into 3 parts, the local community partner, national partner, consultant, and media partners. Local community partner refers to the organizations or institutions that are based on the specified areas. These organizations will help us to identify specific needs of each area. For the Batangas area, local government unit of Brgy. Arumahan and the faculty of Ananias C. Hernandez Memorial National High School were selected as our local community partners while 2030 Youth Force in the Philippines-Eastern Visayas, Local Youth Development Council-Tacloban City, and Sangguniang Kabataan Federation-Tacloban City for Tacloban City and Lanao del Sur I Division Office, Super Lumba and SK Federation of Marawi City for Marawi City.

National partners refer to institutions or organizations that has a specific organizational purpose that is inclined to the safety, health, and environment topics or issues. Breakwater PH and Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation were selected as the national partner for safety, University of the Philippines Manila-College of Public Health Student Council and Youth for Mental Health Coalition, Inc. for health, and Climate Change Commission PH for environment. National partners will help us to identify key point, subject areas and visual strategies that will be included in creating the module as well as facilitating the activity. Consultants refer to the individuals who were considered as expert or who has accreditation on the subject matters from the national agencies.





Consultants will orient the team regarding the safety, health and environment areas as well as developing learning strategies for the facilitating the activities. For the consultants, Ms. R. Lagasca, Secretary-General of Youth for Mental Health Coalition Philippines, Inc. was invited to discuss the mental health, Ms. B. Perez, Chief of Research and Planning Section of the Quezon City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office for the disaster preparedness, Dr. V. Mercado for hygienic precautions and disease spreading preventions, Mr. E. Lazarte for road, home, and school safety topic, and Youth Leaders for Environmental Action Federation for environment topic. Meetings with the consultants will run from July to September 2020. Due to COVID-19 pandemic situation and enhanced community quarantine that was implemented in the Metro Manila, national partner and consultant meetings were conducted thru zoom. However, consultative meetings with local community partner will be conducted thru face-to-face since some of our team members are in the respective local community areas.



Media partners refers to the companies or organization or individuals who can promote the said activity in their own media platforms. The team is still identifying who will be the official media partners for the project.

• Identification of participants

During the meetings, the team decided to invite students and kids that are primarily ages 10-12 years old since these age groups are considered as one of vulnerable groups in which they starting to explore ideas and activities and want to become more independent as well as they have intermediate learning capacity to understand the topics. Local community partners will help the team to identify the participants. Identification of participants was scheduled in the months of August to September.

• Development and Distribution of iCare modules

The team started to draft the modules that will be distributed and used by the beneficiaries last June 2020. The team also decided to focus on 5 topics namely road, home and school safety, hand washing, wearing of mask and personal protective equipment, physical distancing, mental health awareness, and environment. After months of revision, the team finalized the module that were sent to our national partners for their inputs on August 7, 2020. Pilot testing of the modules will be also done and scheduled after national partners given their feedbacks. Distribution was done on August 8 for the leg in Lemery, Batangas area. Modules that will be distributed for Tacloban and Marawi leg will be sent via courier.

• Distribution of iCare supply kits

The team identified the kits that will be distributed to the participants. These includes hand soap, face mask, alcohol, toothbrush, toothpaste, face shield, whistle, and flashlights. Last July, the team procured some of the items included thru traditional and online shopping. The kits will be used by the participants on practicing the knowledges and ideas that they have learned during the activity. Kits were also distributed last August 8.

• Facilitation of Project iCare activity

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the team created contingency plans for conducting the activity. For plan A, face to face activity will be implemented and the team will still go to the respective areas; for plan B, volunteers and local community partners will be trained on how to conduct the activity given that at least one team member is present on the area; and for plan C, activities will be done thru zoom and participants will be given internet expenses. The team scheduled the facilitation of activities for each area. August 15, 2020 for the Batangas area, September 5 or 12 in Tacloban and September 19 or 26 for Marawi. However, the team decided to change the mode of activity for Batangas from face-to-face to an online activity due to the modified enhance quarantine that was imposed in Metro Manila in which 2 of the team members were located in. Nevertheless, the Tacloban and Marawi leg will still be done on face-to-face mode of activity. Teacher-volunteers helped us distribute the kits house to house to our participants in our Batangas Leg. And last August 15, we have successfully conducted our first Project iCARE.

After of each activity, SHE Champions will be identified. These SHE Champions will help the team to spread and re-echo the information that they have gained to their home or neighborhood. Also, SHE Champions will create ideas and activities that they can do on their local areas. All achievements of the SHE Champions will be posted on our social media pages. Up next, Brgy. Payatas in Quezon City in NCR, then Tacloban City in Visayas, and lastly, Lanao del Sur in Mindanao. #