HOPE Still Standing, Still Smiling

MANILA, Philippines - The devastation is overwhelming – and heartbreaking. Everywhere, houses that were once homes were reduced to piles of debris.

But that is not the end of the story for thousands of towns in Eastern Visayas. The ravages of Super Typhoon Yolanda is one chapter; but now the page is turned, and from the destruction have emerged stories of hope and courage, signs of life and indomitable faith – the Filipino is still standing, and still smiling. The true spirit of Christmas is alive in the homes and hearts of the victims of Typhoon Yolanda.

STARweek contributor and friend, multi-award winning photographer George Tapan, returned to the most hard-hit areas a month after the storm to capture, not the devastation this time, but glimpses of hope – scenes of the faithful flocking to a roofless church for Christmas mass; children playing and smiling as they bring home relief goods for a simple yet meaning-filled noche buena; a spirited game of basketball played among the tents at the evacuation camp; people rebuilding their homes and their lives, day by day.

The struggle to get the people of Leyte and neighboring areas back on their feet will continue well into the New Year and even the years after, but Filipinos remain standing, smiling, surviving.

As a sign tied to a felled tree in Leyte proclaims: “We are roofless, homeless, but we are not hopeless.” — Ida Anita Q. del Mundo