The grant support of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) to the Indigenous Tagbanua community in Coron, Palawan, Philippines is contributing to the rebuilding of lives, beyond the emergency relief phase in the aftermath of the worst typhoon disaster to hit the Philippines. The support will be provided in the form of small grants to the target communities in the barangays of Cabugao, Banuang Daan, Tara and Malawig. The projects under the small grants are activities that will create opportunities for growing their endeavour through a medium-term timeframe, and can create the building blocks for enhancing the resilience of the community.

AJWS supported communities include Coron Island Ancestral Domain composed of Barangays Cabugao and Banuang Daan; and Tara-Buenavista-Malawig Ancestral Domain. These communities prioritized restoration of their seaweed farming, subsistence fishing and backyard animal raising.

Aside from the seaweed and fishing materials, two seaweed nurseries are now in place and will serve as seedling source when farmers began to expand their seaweed lines. In fact, Samdhana sources the seaweed seedlings from beneficiaries in the other area, Sitio Bulokbulokan. Within a short period of two months, the first beneficiaries in Bulokbulokan were able to provide seaweed seedlings, which were purchased and distributed to the next island, Brgy. Bulalacao.

“As much as possible, we source materials, such as seaweeds, hogs and carabaos, locally help to revive local economy. Partner associations help in scouting and securing these items, said Joan Jamisolamin, Program Manager Samdhana Philippines Office.

The first batch of paddle boat making (60 paddle boats) is now halfway and is set to be distributed in the next two weeks together with fishnets and accessories in Barangay Tara and Malawig. The second round of paddle boat making and fishnet distribution will be scheduled in the next quarter as analysis of validation data is still in the process. Production of the boats has also been contracted to local craftsmen. The timber requirements are sourced within the ancestral domain of the target beneficiaries, and makes use of many of the fallen trees left by Typhoon Yolanda. However, recognizing the increased extraction of wood, associations have committed to doing tree-planting to replace the trees that were damaged or those that were used

In Brgy. Malawig, processing and decision on the kind of livelihood project that the association and community members will undertake is taking long since the sub-association (Pundasyon ng Malawig) has to deal with some internal concerns. Brgy. Malawig is also recipient of numerous assistance from different agencies, especially since it is one of the hardest hit and at the same time, one of the more accessible barangays to reach. Given this situation, Samdhana is providing the time for the association to decide on this, as we see that it is possible for the AJWS support to be maximized for a communal project that will establish a local source of income for the association and its members, and can be managed for longer-term sustainability beyond the Haiyan-related assistance.