Rosilyn Muhi, 51 years old, is a single mother from Barangay Binay in the municipality of San Narciso in Quezon Province. She makes a living from selling street food, copra, and pigs. However, when three consecutive typhoons ravaged the region, their copras were all destroyed and their pigs were left dead.

Because of the pandemic, business has been slow because people are having a harder time earning money. Sometimes, according to Rosilyn, a day passes without any sale. Before the typhoons, there were food sources and livelihoods were stable. But when the typhoons massively destroyed the crops, food insecurity followed. People in the community have gone a day or days without eating, due to lack of money and other resources. They also need medicines and school supplies for their children.

When Rosilyn and her family received the food pack from the project Emergency Relief Assistance for Severely Affected Families Caused by Typhoon Quinta (Molave) and Super Typhoon Rolly (Goni), she was grateful for the assistance which came a week before Christmas.

“This is such a difficult time for us. I’ve already forgotten that Christmas is just days away. We’ll make the food last until then. I hope the government will help us restore our livelihoods so we don’t depend on relief for our daily needs,” Rosilyn said.

A total of six barangays from two municipalities benefited from this project. The recipients were from the vulnerable sectors: senior citizens, farmers, fishermen, and those with partially and totally damaged houses. The project is an emergency response assistance to Typhoon Rolly-affected communities in Quezon Province. This was made possible by the generous support of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH), a German humanitarian organization.