"Ang aga namang Valentine’s gift nito (This is an early Valentine’s Day gift)," 46-year-old Angelina Vargas said happily after receiving relief goods from the Damayan volunteers who went to Real for the humanitarian mission.
Vargas said the unrelenting fury of typhoons "Unding" and "Winnie" had destroyed their farmland last December, making life more difficult for her family, which includes nine children.
"Our livelihood was destroyed," she said. "My husband just gets odd jobs as a carpenter now because we have no crops to grow."
Operation Damayan reached out to a total of 600 families in Real. The families received building tools, food and other relief goods donated by kind-hearted readers and employees who responded to Damayan’s appeal for donations that saw print in The STAR last month.
According to Filipino-Swiss Cherry Chiesa, a first-time Damayan volunteer, everyone should live the spirit of giving and sharing - especially in times of hardship and calamities.
"You don’t have to be big or rich to help others," Chiesa said, underscoring the even greater need for calamity survivors to feel their benefactors caring and concern. "It’s not enough that you give them money. You should spend time with them, because that will give them more confidence to get up and live again."
During the mission, Damayan gave 515 Real families in Barangay Kilorin tools for rebuilding, seedlings for replanting the ravaged mountainsides, rice, clothes, biscuits in covered pails, colorfully wrapped loaves of bread and assorted groceries.
The loaves of bread were donated by regular Damayan volunteer Elvie Estavillo, while Kepco Phils. and the employees of the Department of Finance provided additional grocery items.
Operation Damayan volunteers also built two toilet facilities and installed a motorized water pump at the Kilolorin Elementary school.
The volunteers also set up another water pump and two more comfort room facilities near the barangay’s chapel.
A total of 85 more families in upland Barangay Magsaysay also received relief goods and rebuilding tools from Operation Damayan.
On Jan. 22, Damayan brought assistance to over 200 families in Infanta, the other town hardest hit by the typhoons.
Residents of Barangay Magsaysay approached Damayan volunteers who had brought relief goods and were helping in the rebuilding efforts in Infanta last month and told the volunteers they needed a water pump in their area.
The volunteers did an ocular inspection of Barangay Magsaysay then, but Damayan coordinator and STAR photographer Revoli Cortez said installing a water pump there is not possible because the water table lies 15 feet under rock-strewn soil.
During the mission in Real, Damayan volunteers served mouth-watering champorado (chocolate porridge) to the children of Kilolorin at the school compound, the first course of a feast for the soul and body.
The volunteers also organized parlor games, much to the delight of the children and their parents, who have had little reason to laugh since the typhoons destroyed their homes and their means of income.
The children competed for the toys and cash prizes given out during the "pabitin," the clay pot-hitting contest and the "bring me" games.
Eight-year-old John Lester Bautista was beaming when he managed to grab a toy car from the "pabitin" and he rushed to show his new toy off to his classmates.
"This is my favorite kind of toy," he said, grinning from ear to ear. "It’s a good thing I won this. Thanks to you."
A brainchild of The STAR’s late founding chairman Betty Go-Belmonte, Operation Damayan was founded to provide relief for the sick and people in dire need. Her legacy of mercy and assistance to the needy is continued by her son, STAR president and chief executive officer Miguel Belmonte.