Garantizamos la educación ante la erupción del volcán Mayon
enero 31, 2018
More than 84,000 people have been evacuated within a five-mile radius of the Mayon Volcano, in the Albay province of the Philippines, where we work. The activity of the iconic volcano in the last two weeks has been getting more complicated every day and 80 centres – 70 of them schools – have been set up as shelters for the population, meaning lessons have been suspended. As well as protection and the provision of hygiene supplies, Educo is also offering spaces for children to continue learning in while the emergency continues.
In coordination with the country’s authorities, Educo is attending to 10,949 families, a total of 41,720 people from the provinces Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Ligao and the city of Legazpi, where we carry out our development projects. Here, we visited the centres that are sheltering the people who have been evacuated in order to familiarise ourselves with and respond to their needs.
One of the actions in our emergency response plan is to provide spaces where children can continue with their education while the situation continues, and support teachers and provide them with the necessary supplies, because lessons have been cancelled due to schools being used as shelters for the displaced population.
The students, their families and the teachers will also receive psychological support to cope as well as they can with the circumstances, and they will also receive essential supplies like hygiene kits, kitchen utensils, bedding and face masks in order to protect themselves from the volcanic ash.
We have also seen the need for the creation of spaces where children can be safe and play and we have provided supplies like books, toys, drawing materials and paint and board games.
In total we are attending to 300 children under 11 months, 3200 students aged 3 to 17, 2500 families, 50 teachers and 40 monitors.
According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, it is possible that a dangerous eruption will take place in a matter of days, so the alert will stay in place at 4 out 5 as it has been since 22nd January.