Yolanda Survivor Pays It Forward

Yolanda survivor Merlinda Inocencio shared the following story at the 22nd annual membership meeting of the Center for Community Transformation Group of Ministries in March 2014.  To read this testimony in Filipino, please click HERE. 

Good evening everyone!  I thank the Lord for this chance to speak of His goodness to me and my family.  My name is Merlinda Inocencio.  My husband and I have four children and six grandchildren.  We are fisher folk from Estancia in Iloilo province. Our town is called the ‘Alaska of the Philippines’ because a huge percent of the crabs eaten in Manila are caught in our waters.

I am a CCT community partner. The micro finance loans I have received from the CCT Credit Cooperative for the past eight years allowed me to purchase two fishing pump boats.  Earnings from selling our catch at the Estancia fish port supported the education of my children, all of whom earned college degrees. My eldest child has a degree in commerce, my second child finished nursing, and the two youngest studied IT.

Our boats also provided jobs for ten men – boat pilots, machinists, and boat hands.  These heads of the family supported a total of 25 children. 

Estancia was heavily hit by Supertyphoon Yolanda.  We had eight feet of water in our house and had to jump off our terrace and swim to safety!  Praise the Lord that none of us drowned!

We thank God for those that He used to give us and our neighbors relief items after Yolanda.  We were also visited by doctors and given the medicine we needed.

We lost our pump boats in the storm and one of our crew is still missing. Since fishing is the only way my family knows of earning a living,  another loan from CCT was a big help in re-establishing our business.  I received a P70,000 loan with which I bought a new pump boat, motor, and nets. We have been able to go out to sea again and I have gone back to selling fish at the fish port.  My hopes are high that with God’s blessing we will be able to fully recover.

I have extended this blessing to the children of my missing crew member.  He left behind two daughters – one in seventh grade, and one in fourth grade  -- who now live on Bantayan Island in Cebu.  I regularly send them help to enable them to stay in school. 

Sunday worship services began to be held at the CCT office in Estancia after Yolanda struck.  I attend those services regularly. The Lord used the storm to remind me of the importance of my relationship with Him. The storm showed me that I can do nothing except by Him, that our lives are in His hands, and that all events in this world are under his authority. 

Thank you and God bless us all!

Estancia Fisherwoman: Back In Business

Hope shines anew in Margielyn Gallardo's eyes. 

Margielyn with some freshly-steamed crabs

Crabs ready for steaming.

Margielyn's two new boats.

A dream house  damaged by Yolanda.

Seven years ago, Margielyn Gallardo and her husband began building their dream house. It was a concrete one-story building that sat on the western tip of Loguingot Island, right on the shore of this island barangay of Estancia, Iloilo. It had a tiled floor, a small terrace, and two bedrooms -- very different from the houses they had both grown up in.  From here Margielyn could watch the sunset, or look out over the water as her family's fishing boats came in with fresh catches of crab and fish.

Over the past 23 years, as their brood of children grew to seven, the Gallardos also built up their fishing livelihood until they had a fleet of 11 boats, each of which provided jobs for two or three nephews or neighbors. Part of the catch was brought to a  processing company where the crab meat was picked out of the shells, pasteurized, and exported.  

Then on November 8, 2013, Supertyphoon Yolanda slammed into Estancia, causing a storm surge and hurling a huge boat against the house.

The next day Margielyn found that she had no house. No boats.  Not even any fishing equipment. No nets.  No crab cages. "Wala kaming naisalba,' she states simply.

Margielyn is one of 36 members of the CCT Savings and Credit Cooperative who live and work on Loguingot Island.  Most of them are fisher folk. Others earn a living ferrying passengers across the water from the mainland.

 The island is home to about 300 families all of whom suffered  from Yolanda's pummeling.

Today Margielyn and her family have gone back to living in a hut with bamboo walls and a grass roof.  She may not be allowed to rebuild over what's left of her dream house. But still, things are looking good for Margielyn.  She recently received a loan of P70,000 from CCT and from the Bread from Heaven Christian Fellowship in Las Pinas City.  The church has a special interest in helping Estancia and nearby communities  rebuild their homes and livelihoods.

With this loan, Margielyn bought two motorized fishing boats and several dozen new crab cages. She is back in business, catching crabs and steaming them whole. (The crabs are then brought to the mainland and soon appear in restaurants  as crabmeat omelette or  sizzling crabmeat.)

And she can smile with hope again. 

Two months after Yolanda hit Loguingot Island, half of  the hull of a boat hurled by the super typhoon against the Gallardo house still lies on the shore.  Also shown is what's left of  Margielyn's kitchen.