TWA, Haya’s spearhead Yutu relief on Tinian

Tinian Elementary School students receive their school supplies a week after school opened. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS)

As Super Typhoon Yutu’s wrath was receding early morning Oct. 25, 2018, Haya Foundation-Man Yo’amte (healers) Foundation reached out to the Tinian Women’s Association, Inc., who were already out assessing the critical needs of the most vulnerable citizens of Tinian.

Few words were uttered between TWA and Haya except the need for water, personal hygiene goods, nonperishable foods, other emergency relief supplies, and the love, prayers, and support that’s on its way from sister island and people of Guahan.

Immediately after Yutu, as their motto states, “Making things happen,” TWA made assessments of needs, created protocols and established registries of the most vulnerable population, i.e. children under 5 years old, elderly, sick and persons with disabilities, pregnant women in cooperation with the director of Tinian Senior Citizen, Evilyn Fleming David, and Headstart staff, Maggie Atalig Patio. Meanwhile, Deborah Fleming, a founding member of TWA and board of director, authorized TWA to use the old Fleming Restaurant for their distribution center and Haya foundation was informing families, friends, and the Guam communities of the needed relief supplies and securing transport of goods to Tinian. In less than 24 hours, Haya was able to collect and arrange shipment with Sean Christian of Star Marianas Air for the first 2,000 lbs of water, nonperishable food supplies, and hygiene products at no cost to Tinian. They arrived on Oct. 26 and thus “Project Osilio (help)” was launched and relief goods were issued or delivered to the first group of registered vulnerable citizens of Tinian by late afternoon into nightfall using only headlights, flashlights, and lanterns. The next day, Haya chartered another flight to carry 2,272 lbs of goods to Tinian.

TWA and Haya worked in perfect sync as Haya continued to collect and ship while TWA received, inventoried, issued, or delivered packages which included, but not limited to, basic items such as a case of water, nonperishable foods, paper products, toiletries, and hygiene products.

Haya Foundation was able collect, purchase and ship a total of 105,889 lbs of goods as of Jan. 20, 2019 from the generosity of the people of Guam with the support of Matson’s Pacific senior vice president of the Pacific Vic Angoco and Guam & Micronesia vice president Bernie Valencia, and Page Butler and staff of DGX for logistical support to palletize and load Matson containers.

TWA is also grateful to have delivered 3,168 lbs of donated goods from FEMA (c/o Debbie and Team Koka), Red Cross (c/o Arley Guitierrez-Long and Vivian Hofschneider), MarPac, Korsicana, Texas Community (c/o Carmen Taimanao), Dione Santos’ son and friends, Felipe M. Mendiola, Jr., Kyle Munn, Ray & Brenda Iglesias children in Texas and Mr. & Mrs. Juan N. Babauta.

TWA was able to deliver 109,057 lbs of donated relief goods to 631 households with a total population of 2,733. These included the tents and church materials from Guam mayor of Agat and church parishes delivered to Tinian San Jose Church, Father Ray Rizal, and school and dental hygiene products for students shortly after school resumed in November.

Some items received were not distributed as they were single items or few and TWA was not able to identify who needed them most, but a generator was donated to one outpatient whose need was confirmed by medical professionals and another was used to power up a soup kitchen that was feeding the same target group and the military relief workers and one refrigerator was donated to Tinian Health Center to store vaccinations and other medicines needing refrigeration. The generator used at the Soup Kitchen has been returned to TWA and TWA intends to use it for its future events and functions. The rest of the items, and items received from CNMI Club, Hawaii, were raffled out free during Haya Foundation and TWA’s Holiday and Appreciation Lunch held on Dec. 23, 2018, as they brought their “Project Osilio” to a close and give appreciation to those who have helped the Tinian community one way or another, but most especially those who left their families to help Tinian recover from Yutu’s devastation.

“While Yutu devastated Tinian, it provided the opportunity to express love in action thus strengthening the bond of Un Marianas with Un Kurason,” said Zita Pangelinan, president of Haya Foundation. “ Our indeginous values of inaguaiya, inafamaolek, and inayuda continue to be demonstrated amongst our people. We are truly grateful to work with the incredible women of TWA who are as selfless as our traditional healers. Although, they have suffered great losses, they were more concerned about their people and worked tirelessly to serve as many as they could”, added Pangelinan.

TWA and Haya Foundation also want to extend, on behalf of the people of Tinian, a profound appreciation and love to the donors and special thanks to the Tinian Jr./Sr. High School Mock Trial Team, National Honored Society, AmeriCorp, Frederick Arend DelaCruz, Eric Cruz SanNicolas and daughter kaisa, Gherat Mony, Nikita P. Mendiola, Ervin C. Cruz, Vicente M. Cing, Jr., Chatto Cristoria and Domingo Penaranda, Mr and Mrs Juan M. Atalig, Frank B. Mendiola, Ernie U. Hofschneider, Louie Kosrae, Gilbert M. Borja, Joy Tiapong, Ami Dadulia, Revika Manuel and daughter Denise, Petra A. Cabrera, Jodeen C. Manglona, Kulio B. Cabrera, Mario and Brigette Alo, M.A. Halam, Belal Hossain, Dullal Khan, Santo Miah, Rahmat Ullah, Ray Lazaro and family, Melvin Crisostimo and family, Gerry Crisostimo and family, Theodosia Sanchez and family, Luis Lizama and family, Cecillie Tamondong Clem, Steve & Faye Mendiola, John and Cindy Atao, William M. Cing and family, and Henry H. SanNicolas and family for their hours of volunteer work in off-loading, loading, inventories, packing, issuing/deliveries, clean ups and cooking; Henry U. Hofschneider (4G+1 rental) for providing serving tables, Eric Reyes and Javie Decena for contributing their sound system, Paul Elder for donating the fresh beef for roasting and drying, Custom and Quarantine Officers Vincent Reyes, Jr., Sylvestre Palacios, and Antonio Castro and his canine friend for their patience and help in clearing shipments, and Docomo Pacific for bags to pack school supplies.

TWA, in collaboration with the Tinian Senior Citizen Center, Tinian Elementary, Tinian High School, and NMC-CREES, will now focus on teaching our children how to grow their own food and preserve them so that they can continue to be well nourished during and after disasters and searching out grants to help incorporate water tanks and solar panels into Tinian’s infrastructure development so that people will not be over-burdened trying to collect water and live in darkness immediately following a disaster. (PR)