The European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) has
agreed to boost IOM's emergency relief operations in the
typhoon-hit Bicol region with €550,000 (P36 million) of new
funding.

The funding, which follows a $250,000 (P1.24 million) grant from
the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), will extend the
coverage of ongoing IOM relief operations to 20,000 families
(100,000 people) in the typhoon-affected provinces of Albay,
Camarines Sur and Catanduanes.

IOM, which is working in close coordination with the Philippine
government and partner agencies, has already delivered over 602 MT
of relief goods to typhoon-ravaged areas of Bicol.

IOM trucks and boats began to deliver relief goods to the region
in December on behalf of agencies including the government, the
Philippine Red Cross, and international and local NGOs.

Recent deliveries have included some 40 MT of relief supplies,
including 4 MT of corrugated iron (CGI) roofing sheets, to the
hard-hit island of Catanduanes.

 

IOM now plans to expand its operations hub in Legaspi City, where
it has already identified a new 240m² warehouse.

The hub will continue to provide logistics and transport
services to other agencies in the region, where efforts are ongoing
to repair hundreds of homes and infrastructure destroyed by Typhoon
Reming at the end of November 2006.

Reming, also known as Durian, swept through Bicol leaving some
1,400 people dead or missing and 2,000 injured. Today, thousands
remain displaced, many of them without access to adequate food,
water or electricity.

 

"The ECHO funding will help us to reach more destitute,
typhoon-affected families and to bring in many of the relief items
that they need to restart their lives," says IOM operations officer
Ida Mae Fernandez, who is coordinating IOM's work in Bicol.

Assessments conducted in the typhoon-hit provinces identified
the need for food and non-food items including sleeping mats,
blankets and mosquito nets; drinking water; water purification
tablets and systems; medicine and medical kits for children and
adults; emergency shelter in the form of individual household tents
and power generator sets to support lifeline services in medical
facilities.

For further information, please contact:

Ruffy L. Villanueva

IOM Manila

Tel: +63.2 8481260 to 63 ext 194

Mobile: +63.9184211786

E-mail: "mailto:rvillanueva@iom.int">rvillanueva@iom.int