Unusual drought and brothers needing some help
We are having an El Nino season, an unusual drought, right now in the Philippines. El Niño is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon. The name El Niño comes from the Spanish name for “the little boy” and also refers to the Christ Child. The reason is because when the phenomenon of an El Niño happens, it is normally around Christmas time. It usually happens in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America and is characterized by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
The last El Niño began in September 2006 and it lasted until early July of 2007. Since July 2007, El Niño has been a little quiet until now. In the US this will cause a crown year with the best crop ever (like 1997), while the Philippines, Indonesia and countries in our region experience a terrible drought and starvation for many people. Warm winds dry out the land.
The effects have been seen in the Philippines since Christmas and are now felt by the people in Mindoro. It is an unusual dry season and nothing grows without watering. The Mangyans normally just live off the things they harvest day by day in the mountains and have no money to buy food. This lifestyle causes a lot of problems when there is a drought. They will normally harvest cassava, sweet potatoes, burut, gabe, rice, bananas and name. Many villages have no more food and can only find some name. Name has a poison that must be washed away before they use it as food. The Mangyans know how to do this. The cassava and other crops don’t grow any more. Many of our Mangyan brothers don’t know what to eat from one day until the next.
When speaking to Santie two days ago, he started to cry when I asked about the situation. He said, “People have no food. But I am looking to God to help us through the next months. In their churches there are 300 families.”
I asked him to gather the other leaders and look at all possible solutions for their people. We sat down with him to make a plan on what can be done. In addition to some food given, we must find seeds of vegetables they can grow around their houses to help in the crises. They will not be back to normal harvest until September.
We are facing many problems in bringing food to the villages in the mountains. There is a conflict between the military groups of NPA living in the mountains and the government, making it difficult to bring out food and medicines in some areas. To illustrate the situation let me tell one story that happened not long ago.
David is a Mangyan living in one of the villages in the mountains. He has a little shop where he sells medicines for people in several villages. One time he went to the lowland to by more medicines. In the meantime there was a shooting between NPA and the military in his area and several soldiers got killed. On his way back with the medicine supplies, the military stopped him and asked many questions. He was killed because they thought he was bringing medicines into the mountains to help the NPA. These kinds of situations cause the Mangyans not to trust the government. Sometimes the guerilla groups take their food.
We have many considerations to make in distributing the help. We are coordinating with the police and making ID’s for the Mangyan bringing the food. They must walk in the mornings, not late afternoon, and we cannot do the distribution in the same pattern each time, but must change days and time to make it more difficult for bad elements to steal the food. Pray for the wisdom of God in all that is happening.
Noralv Askeland
