Good Yolanda versus Bad Yolanda
Video by INQUIRER.net’s Ryan Leagogo
TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — A year after Supertyphoon Yolanda broke families apart throughout the Visayas region, another Yolanda is working hard to bring them together again.
People call Yolanda Cantos, 51, of Tolosa, Leyte the “good Yolanda,” in contrast with the “bad Yolanda” that struck on November 8, 2013, killing more than 6,000 people and leaving millions displaced and homeless in several provinces.
Her primary responsibility is to take care of women in distress due to physical or sexual abuse through the Women-Friendly Spaces (WFS) established with the help of international non-government organization (NGO) Plan International.
Yolanda Cantos. Photo by RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net
“I know why the mayor assigned me to this work. It’s because Yolanda was the destroyer, and now [this is] part of Yolanda’s repentance. Yolanda is repenting that’s why I, Yolanda, am doing this,” Cantos told reporters Thursday.
“It feels good to be an instrument of God to create change. Yolanda really taught us a lesson. It served as an eyeopener for all of us,” she said.
The WFS in Tolosa is just one of 13 WFS established throughout Eastern Samar and Leyte. The primary objective is to provide a support community for the women who become victims of physical or sexual abuse in the chaotic wake of the typhoon.
Cantos recounted how, as previous head of the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWD), she met thousands of distraught women who came to her in the municipal hall asking for help or any form of support because they had lost all their possessions.
Cases of abuses against women had also risen following the devastation of Yolanda because of the lack of adequate shelters, food and other supplies, and the loss of various government services.
Now, with the WFS in place in Tolosa, women come there for support and counseling for their problems which has resulted in their increased awareness about their rights.
Victims of abuses are supported if they want to seek help from the police, or if they need assistance with their health, or even if they are seeking legal remedies to their problems.
“The WFS has opened the minds of the locals about their rights and responsibilities to the neighborhood,” Cantos said.
“Women are agents of change in society.”
