samar plea-yolanda — A young man holds up what could be a sign of desperation among the people of Quinapondan in Eastern Samar, one of the areas that suffered the brunt of Supertyphoon “Yoland” but which has received little attention from the government. RAFFY LERMA

CEBU CITY—University of the Philippines-Tacloban student Deona Pantas was in downtown Tacloban when Super Typhoon Yolanda slammed into Central Visayas last November.

One hundred days after, Pantas is still recovering from the aftermath of the monster typhoon’s devastation.

“We didn’t expect it to be that strong. The night before, we were even watching a movie,” Pantas told the Inquirer.

She said she realized how bad the typhoon was only when she started hearing loud noises in the early morning of Nov. 9. “We heard shouting, people yelling for help. I was really scared,” she said.

Pantas remembered seeing her friends nearly drown in neck-deep waters brought about by the storm surge.

It took two weeks for Pantas to get to Cebu from Leyte. During those two weeks, she endured days walking long distances to get food and spent nights fearful of escaped prisoners. “The lines at ATMs (automated teller machines) were long and the lines to get boat tickets to Cebu were even longer,” she said.

More than three months after the tragedy, Pantas said she was doing a lot better. “I’m a lot more stable. But I don’t think I’m ready to go back to Tacloban just yet,” she said.

Pantas was with more than 50 teachers and students from Yolanda-hit areas in Iloilo, Aklan, Cebu, Samar and Leyte provinces who took part in the two-day Inquirer Reading for Healing (R4H) workshop held at the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu Union Building. Joining the workshop were correspondents of the Inquirer Visayas bureau.

“When the students from Tacloban arrived here in Cebu, they all had the same blank expressions,” said UP Cebu guidance counselor Annie Manzano. “But these days, they can already afford to smile.”

Reading for healing

The workshop included interactive book-based storytelling training with Ang Pinoy Storytellers’ Rich Rodriguez and Posh Develos; an organizing, hosting and documentation workshop led by members of the Inquirer Read-Along team; a laughter yoga session with Paolo Trinidad of Pinoy Laughter Yoga, and a debriefing session led by UP Cebu guidance counselors Manzano and Annabelle Maglasang.

A read-along session with children from Barangay Basak San Nicolas will also be held on the last day of the workshop as a culminating activity.

“Our main challenges include transforming the usual read-along program to a Reading for Healing program that incorporates debriefing and healing activities,” Inquirer Read-Along program coordinator Minerva Generalao told the participants. “Another challenge is organizing sustainable reading for healing programs in your respective areas.”

“I feel that reading can be a very good tool for debriefing,” said Manzano. “Storytelling is particularly good because sometimes, survivors of calamities do not like to talk about their experience. But maybe if they are given an anchor for their feelings, like a story that can evoke their emotions, maybe they will be encouraged to open up to debriefers.”

“We’re hoping that our Yolanda survivors from Tacloban, who are joining us in this training, can partner with them in doing a program like this. We need to train more people to help in Tacloban because it needs a lot of help when it comes to debriefing the victims,” she said.

Debriefing for counselors

Even the guidance counselors in Tacloban need debriefing themselves. “They also lost their families to Yolanda,” she said.

As counselors, Manzano said they were just there to listen to the students. “If they feel like talking, they come to us. We don’t force them to talk to us if they’re not yet ready.”

She said the students who came to her talked about their feelings of fear, helplessness and guilt.

“Some of them lost family members when they were hit by strong waves. Some of them talked about how they tried to hold onto each other, only to have the storm surges wash away their loved ones,” she said. “Some wanted to save people, but they couldn’t do anything; they felt so helpless. Others watched people die from their wounds. They were really traumatized.”

“Listening to these stories can also take a toll on you, but I know I have to be strong. I know that when they look at me, they see an anchor,” she said.

It’s been months since UP Tacloban students first came to the UP Cebu campus as cross-registrants, and their lives have since taken on a semblance of normalcy. “These days, when we see them in the corridors, we ask them how they are and they say they’re all right,” said Manzano.

The two-day workshop marks the start of a series of R4H sessions in the Visayas. Interested partners and donors may help in the following ways: Recommend where to hold a R4H program; sponsor a R4H session; donate cash or books; share a story or anecdote that would make a reader smile or inspire them to move on, or volunteer to become a celebrity reader, psychologist-debriefer, host, organizer or part of secretariat for an R4H program. E-mail [email protected] for more details.