Roughly 80,000 people displaced by recent conflict remain in evacuation centers or with relatives throughout Zamboanga City in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines.
In difficult conditions – floods, incessant rain, deep mud, congestion and limited sanitation facilities – CFSI is providing children with safe, welcoming and fun places to play and learn at the biggest evacuation center in the city, the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex, including:
– Five Child-Friendly Spaces/Temporary Learning Spaces (CFS/TLS) established at the sports complex and another at the adjoining Cawa-Cawa evacuation center, which serves Sama-Badjao and Tausug children;
– Four daily psychosocial support sessions in the CFS/TLS tents from Monday to Sunday.
– About 80 volunteers at CFS/TLS were trained to provide psychosocial sessions for children, of whom about 50 are Youth Focal Points who provide peer-to-peer support.
– CFS/TLS volunteers and camp managers participated in training on techniques for family tracing and reunification, as well as the protection of separated or unaccompanied children.
CFSI has had a continuous presence in the city since 17 September, working with a range of partners to provide much-needed humanitarian interventions for those who have been displaced by the hostilities that broke on 09 September in Zamboanga City. At least 139,000 people were displaced by the conflict.
CFSI was part of a joint needs-assessment composed of Philippine Government and UN humanitarian agencies, undertaking interventions and installing appropriate responses for those who have been displaced, particularly the most vulnerable. CFSI is carrying out these child protection and education activities in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
CFSI is also working with Western Mindanao State University’s College of Social Work and Community Development in mentoring and supervising student volunteers who are conducting regular psychosocial sessions for displaced children.
Photographs taken by CFSI’s Philippine Programme Director Vladimir Hernandez