Are you still asking, "What can I do for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)?"
In the small baranggay (neighborhood) of Cabugao Oeste, in the town of Panay, Capiz, stand three clusters of bright blue drums, surreal, because most of the houses are gone.
It also feels strange now to be asked, "What can we do?" FFTA has been trying to inform people that there is a big problem on flooding, rising sea levels, typhoons and poverty. We proposed a solution that would, and still could, help thousands of households in the Philippines.
The day before typhoon Yolanda, we made a short video of one of three households where we installed biogas digesters to demonstrate and replicate the solution. By providing biogas digesters to poor rural households that take care of backyard pigs, we could help them save money spent on firewood and reduce carbon emissions by up to 15 tons of carbon per household per year. We installed digesters at Rolly & Jillen, Rona & Geordita. The burners produced blue flame only two days after loading manure. The system cost $200 and would save up to $1/day for each household. Watch the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBbYoesl62w
We were also preparing to relocate four families like Marilyn who live near the creek, river or coast to an elevated rock outcropping with a small house, pig pen, pigs and a digester. These are households, too poor to own a pig, and have to live near waterways for fishing.
We wanted to demonstrate an orderly, non-emergency, and long term solution that could be replicated in 100,000 households.
Then, typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) came. The houses of Rolly & Jillen, Rona, Geordita and Marilyn were all blown away. Three days after the typhoon, the waters receded and allowed us to take pictures. The surprise and the irony, the three digesters were there and even the pigs and pens, but the houses were gone.
WHAT CAN WE DO? It is so clear, let's help people out of poverty and help ourselves out of carbon emissions. Let's do itone household at a time!
SUPPORT US BY FUNDING THE NEXT HOUSEHOLD.
Let's start by rebuilding Rolly & Jillen's house, then Rona's, Geordinta's, Marilyn ...
Traditional cooking under Rolly's house - Before Haiyan
