IOM has handed over 40 transitional shelter units to families
displaced by armed conflict in Maguindanao in the southern
Philippines.

The handovers in Talayan and Datu Piang bring the number of
families assisted by IOM's "Transitional Shelter Assistance for IDP
Families in Maguindanao" project, launched in April last year, to
140.

The beneficiaries, who were forced to flee their homes by armed
conflict in the area, had lived in cramped conditions in elementary
schools converted into evacuation centres for nearly two years.

The transitional shelters will provide them with better housing
until they are able to return home. The local government will then
convert the vacated units into community infrastructure.

The project, which is funded by the UN Central Emergency
Response Fund (CERF), has also provided the families with water,
sanitation and hygiene facilities, communal kitchens and community
centres.

Families who were forced to flee leaving behind all their
possessions were also given hygiene kits, kitchen sets, water jugs,
sleeping mats, mosquito nets and blankets.

"We are also distributing livelihood packages to help them to
generate some income. Most of them are farmers, but have not been
able to plant and will not have a harvest," says IOM Mindanao
Operations Officer Maria Ena Olmedo.

The livelihood packages include farming tools, fishing nets and
boats to replace those that have been destroyed or lost, as well as
corn, rice and vegetable seeds.

The project is a partnership between IOM, the Municipal Local
Government and Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office and
a local NGO – Mindanao Tulong Bakwet.

IOM is co-lead, with the Department of Social Welfare and
Development, for the Camp Coordination and Camp Management Cluster
in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

For more information, please call:

Maria Ena Olmedo

IOM Mindanao

Tel: +63 064 421 1366

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