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At a madrasah hosting IDPs in Ampatuan municipality,
families displaced by recent fighting in Central Mindanao
receive cooking, hygiene and shelter items as part of ICRC's
emergency humanitarian response. © E. Birraux/ICRC
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A female inmate from Manila City Jail receives
jerry cans as part of the assistance given by the
ICRC in response to the floods inundating many
part of Luzon region. © S. Velasco/ICRC |
In jails that were the worst affected by flooding, the ICRC provided assistance to nine places of detention housing a total of 8,364 inmates located in the National Capital Region as well as Rizal, Pampanga, Bataan and Laguna provinces.
"Detainees are also vulnerable during floods and other disasters, and with all the emergency needs that have to be met, this is not always remembered," said ICRC detention delegate Lynn Graham who organized the emergency response. "These cleaning items and hygiene kits will help them meet a basic standard of hygiene and hopefully prevent further health concerns among the jail population."
Brooms, brushes, cleansers, bleach, jerry cans and buckets were distributed to inmates in Caloocan City Jail, Manila City Jail, Navotas City Jail, Guagua District Jail, Pampanga Provincial Jail, Dinalupihan Municipal Jail, Sta. Cruz District Jail and Laguna Provincial Jail. More than 2,100 inmates also benefited from bath soaps, laundry soaps, toothbrushes and toothpaste while 160 female inmates received sanitary napkins. At San Mateo Municipal Jail in Rizal province, which experienced waist-deep water levels, inmates had to be evacuated to a nearby college. The ICRC provided them with 198 sleeping mats.
In Central Mindanao, families displaced by the recent hostilities left behind most of their possessions to seeking refuge. This week, the ICRC distributed cooking, hygiene and shelter items to nearly 2,200 people in four evacuation centers in Ampatuan municipality, Maguindanao.
Together with the Philippine Red Cross, its operational partner in the country, the ICRC assisted 468 families who each received a kit containing a cooking pot, soaps, mosquito nets, sleeping mat, tarpaulins and jerry cans. The Maguindanao provincial health office also received medicine to treat cases of diarrhoea in the evacuation centres. At one evacuation centre hosting 400 families, the ICRC will set up a connection to supply water, providing better access to drinking water and enhancing sanitation facilities.
In addition, to help people injured by the armed violence, wound-dressing materials, antibiotics and analgaesics covering the needs of about 50 patients were delivered by the ICRC to the provincial health office in Shariff Aguak. The humanitarian organization also supported medical treatment provided to a number of people who were wounded during the hostilities.
The ICRC is a neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian organization that assists and protects victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence. It has been working in the Philippines for over 60 years, visiting detainees and assisting people in need throughout the decades of internal armed conflict.
ICRC assists families displaced by clashes in Maguindanao