France asserts pact to climate resilience a year after ‘Odette’

ONE year after Typhoon Odette’s (international name Rai) rampage, the French government said it remains committed to provide assistance to the Philippines for emergency relief and long-term climate resilience.

The Embassy of France to the Philippines was among the first to provide funding to Filipinos affected when the howler struck the Philippines on December 16, 2021. It claimed nearly 400 victims and displaced thousands of families.

As a response to the calamity, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Crisis and Support Center, mobilized €1 million in emergency aid to support the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) and the French Red Cross, together with the Philippine Red Cross, and another €1 million to the World Food Programme and the United Nations Children's Fund. Their projects were carried throughout 2022, and will continue beyond that.

In typhoon-struck Siargao Island, ACTED Phils. provided hygiene kits and shelter-repair tools in the municipalities of Sison, San Francisco, San Isidro and Santa Monica in the first weeks of the response.

ACTED’S flagship project in Surigao del Norte is focused on rehabilitation of water sources; rebuilding of damaged infrastructures; and construction of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities which helped 1,269 households, or 6,345 persons.

Meanwhile, the Airbus Foundation provided a helicopter that delivered medicines and supplies to French and Filipino communities in Siargao. The Philippine Air Force also extended its help to the French Embassy in bringing food, medicine and other supplies to Bohol and Siargao.

The French Chamber of Commerce and the France-philippines United Action Foundation also had a donation drive for the benefit of communities in difficulty in Cebu, Bohol, and Siargao, in coordination with the Philippine Coast Guard.