Compassion fatigue
Mercemarie Fajardo, also a volunteer doctor in Bicol, said she struggled with a sense of utter helplessness immediately after the storms, inundated with desperate calls for help.
“A lot of the towns were submerged and [people] had no choice but to expose themselves to the flood water. It was challenging to reach out,” said Fajardo.
The Department of Health said it was monitoring burnout amongst the population, acknowledging that “compassion fatigue” has also taken its toll on response and rescue personnel.
“The difference between a disaster zone and a combat zone is that in a disaster zone, no one’s shooting back at you, but the chaos, misery, and frustrations are there. People who work in disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) are not the superhumans we aspire them to be,” said Jason Bonaga, a water search and rescue volunteer in Bicol, which lies in the southern tip of Luzon island.
“No one really asks the rescuers here – ‘Are you okay? What can we do to help you?’ The compassion fatigue is real, but we don’t have the programmes in place for psychological first aid,” said Bonaga. “We need to start caring for (the rescue) people.”
Disaster risk reduction and management staff work for local governments, while the officials of cities or municipalities are expected to be the first responders to any local disasters.
But government auditors say local disaster funds often go unspent, according to a 2023 report by anti-poverty NGO Oxfam, which means help has not been handed to the helpers.
Volunteers also often make up for a shortfall in rescue officers, relief packs or health services – yet the volunteer doctors said their aim was never to replace local government, rather to offer spontaneous help in the immediate aftermath.
“It’s important to have a timeline. Like in the first 48 to 72 hours, that’s the emergency phase,” said Gaddi, setting out the parameters in which volunteer backup worked best.
“The next weeks is the recovery and rehabilitation phase,” she said. “It’s important that our volunteers know when will our volunteer efforts stop and when will the local government step in and take over.”
Are you ready?
A survey published in November showed that Bicol residents had experienced among the highest levels of exposure to disasters, especially typhoons, in all of the Philippines.
And despite having strong local disaster relief mechanisms in place – most locals know what they must do when one strikes – the survey found Bicol residents had the lowest opinion of their national government’s response efforts.
It is not a badge that Manila can afford to wear.
Asia was the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023, according to the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Of all disasters, floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, according to the WMO.
Yet the World Risk Poll 2024, a study by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, an independent global safety charity, shows people in Southeast Asia feel more prepared for disasters than anywhere else.
About 62 per cent of adults in Southeast Asia surveyed in 2023 live in households where everyone at home knows just how to respond in an emergency and about 67 per cent say they could protect themselves and their families from a future disaster.
“The high rate of experiencing disasters certainly contributes to these high scores,” Benedict Vigers, a researcher with Gallup, a consulting company commissioned to conduct the poll, told Context.
Despite such positives, Bonaga said: “We were only as prepared as our most vulnerable – and for most people, the mundane demands of day-to-day life come first.”
“It’s easy to say, ‘have a go-bag or an emergency supply’. But if you’re a daily wage earner… that’s not something you think about,” he said.
This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit https://www.context.news/.
