In 1991, the Pinatubo volcano erupted, devastating the Pampango region: residences and infrastructures were destroyed, fertile fields rendered unproductive by heavy coats of soot and lava, this catastrophe has had long-term consequences on living conditions.
In answer to this situation local NGO PDRN was created in 1991; with the support of a wide network: affected populations, volunteers from community associations and universities, to offer emergency aid to victims.
Very quickly PDRN realizes that emergency aid, though necessary, cannot be the only response in a country where natural disasters are recurrent since linked to climatic confusion (typhoons, floods), itself on the increase due to global warming.
What makes these disasters so costly, in lives and all kinds of structural damages, is the absence of sufficient preventive action and the proliferation that results from a poorly dealt with catastrophe, which carries the seeds for future disasters (for example, the eruption changed river routes creating heavy flooding and fissuring).
For this reason PDRN supports populations threatened by natural disasters through emergency aid actions as well as leaning on community organisation to train the local populace and mobilise them on risk management and the implementation of preventative measures: information campaigns, first aid training, predetermined evacuation plans, terrain renovation to minimise risk (particularly flooding), etc.
On top of all this PDRN has ascertained that disaster situations impact more severely populations already weakened by poverty and precariousness and so has rallied for reinforcement of economic activity in these communities. When the lack of capital and/or education make such economic initiatives difficult, PDRN offers support through operational management, training, access to micro credit, establishment of cooperatives, etc. to generate activity in various sectors: agricultural production, fishing, cattle breeding, small business…
PDRN is equally active in negotiations with local and provincial authorities to better include the populaces in planning of local development policy and risk prevention.
Birth of a partnership
June 15, 1991, after six centuries of inactivity, the Pinatubo volcano woke up, leaving behind 1000 dead in the Pampanga region, also known as the rice attic of the Phillippines. Whole villages disappeared, several communes were buried, and thousands of hectares of arable land devastated and rendered infertile. Hundreds of thousands of people were impacted, directly or indirectly.
Active in the Pampanga region since 1990, Frères des Hommes was impressed by the exceptional emergency aid provided by PDRN immediately following the eruption. This is where was born the partnership between these two associations. At first the work carried out together was centred primarily on a reinforcement of PDRN’s existing organisation and a support in the creation of community associations and risk management in the villages. But very quickly Frères des Hommes and PDRN, who share a common zeal for sustainable development, decided to include the reinforcement and diversification of economic activity in their plan of actions, while continuing training on prevention and management of natural disasters, still frequent in the region.
