A Vision of Hope

Typhoon Yolanda was the worst nightmare for the people of the Philippines, especially those in the Visayas Region (Central Philippines). For those that lived off farming, husbandry and fishing the nightmare was just beginning, they lost their sources of income as the storm devastated everthing in its path.

Many victims of Haiyan suffered due to the destruction of the Typhoon, but here is the testimony of a man that was able to wake up from that bad dream thanks to ADRA’s Economic Recovery in Leyte.

Renato Lozada is 52 year old, married and has an 11 year old son. He lives in Brgy, Ormocay, Dagami, Leyte and is one the community partners in the ERL project. He is a person with disability (PWD), he has an eye cataract in his left eye which is completely blind now. According to him, he acquired it from the perspiration that crosses his eyes during hard work in the field.

A farm labourer earning PHP 200 per day for twice a week only, his life after the typhoon was not easy; most of his properties and farmland especially the coconut trees were damaged. His life and work as a farmer became endangered, his livelihood and his family’s substinance became dire.

As years had passed, he was not expecting to be chosen as a community partner of the ERL Project. As the ERL project aims to help vulnerable people affected by typhoon, Renato, was selected and passed the assessments done by the team.

The project is focused on livelihood recovery, he chose the husbandry sector in which he is one of the community partners goat raisers. His first choice was raising carabao(A type of water buffalo) but was not able to pass the business plan assessment conducted. So as of now, he is a proud and a happy goat raiser because during the distribution, he was lucky that his goat was already pregnant. He just had to wait a couple of weeks for the goat to give birth. His main purpose for the chosen IGA(Income Generating Activities) is for breeding and production in order to increase his income.

“I will take good care of these goats and I’m going to raise them and sell them in the barangays nearby and in the public markets. This way I can use the money for my cataract operation someday. I am very blessed to have been chosen by ADRA as community partner because through this livelihood, I can be healed from my cataract”, he added.

Now those who have benefited from the ERL project are slowly but surely waking up from their nightmares, creating for themselves a better and brighter future. For Renato, this is a present and future he will be able to see clearly with both eyes.