In the village of Maňacabac, the inhabitants, local associations and PDRN listed what they needed the most. For the villagers, the most urgent need was to rebuild the bridge linking the two parts of the village to allow for the transportation of farm products.

Fields laid to waste, houses carried away, deaths, infrastructures ruined... Maňacabac had never been so affected by a natural disaster and was utterly disorganized. PDRN has helped the farmers obtain a grant of 50,000 pesos (about € 800) from regional authorities to rebuild the bridge. The association also partially paid for the work done by the farmers for its repair. Their funds, however, only covered 4 days’ work out of the 16 days required for the job, so 133 farmers accepted to work 12 days for free.

In response to a request from the population, once the repair work was done a training was organized in the proper emergency procedures for natural disasters. On November 14 and 15, 21 local leaders and farmers received training in organizing evacuation plans, first aid and development. Village chief Pompio D. Vigor attended: « This training session was more than necessary. We have been sorely affected by the typhoon because we lacked organization and methods to tackle that kind of situation. Now we are a little more prepared. » The training programme will also be run in 9 other villages. In a country where natural disasters are recurrent, they need long-term solutions.