Contrasting stories of two Naga survivors

LANDSLIDE survivors in the City of Naga are slowly picking up what remained of their lives after the deadly disaster.

Forty days since the landslide, Paz Capoy, 50, admitted she gets emotional whenever she thinks of her three children.

Lauren, 21; Therisa Shyne, 18; and Christopher, eight, were killed when the landslide struck Sitio Sindulan in Barangay Tina-an last Sept. 20.

Now staying in an evacuation center with her mother and other siblings, Capoy can only tearfully recall the dreams that her children had.

The 50-year-old widow said her only daughter, Therisa Shyne, quit school earlier this year so she could work as a job-order employee for the City of Naga to help provide for the family. When she received her first salary, Therisa Shyne gave it all to her mother so the latter could buy materials to fix their house in Sitio Sindulan.

“It was her dream to make our house look beautiful. In fact, we were able to buy a new roof before the landslide struck,” Capoy told SunStar Cebu in Cebuano.

Capoy and her fellow evacuees are still waiting for the City to start building houses at the relocation site.

One thing is for certain, Capoy will not be returning to live in Sindulan.

“What happened to my children there is still fresh on my mind. I just want some peace,” Capoy said in Cebuano.

For Erlinda Alforque, 48, her stay in the evacuation center in the Lagtang Elementary School gave her peace of mind.

Alforque was one of many who were forced to leave Sitio Casimundong in Barangay Inoburan after the area was identified as a danger zone.

Camp managers at the evacuation center made sure Alforque and the more than 400 evacuees staying there did not get bored by organizing regular activities. These included skills training, where the evacuees were taught how to make lanterns, pots, soaps and candles, among others.

Alforque said she particularly enjoyed making soap and candle as this could help augment her income once she and her family return home.

For children staying at the evacuation center, social workers provided them with psychosocial processing through coloring and drawing activities.

While classes were being held at the school, Alforque and other evacuees were treated to other activities to keep them active, said Rafael Bargamento, Department of Social Welfare and Development 7 project development officer 1 and one of the camp managers.

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