Resettled Maranaos get Ramadan food packs from ARMM

COTABATO CITY – More than 300 internally displaced families (IDFs) currently residing in two shelter sites in Marawi City have received food packages from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) government to help them observe the Islamic month of Ramadan.

ARMM’s Humanitarian and Emergency Action Response Team (HEART) distributed truckloads of food packs to the IDFs in the latest leg of “ARMM People’s Day” in Marawi City on May 15, two days before the start of Ramadan fasting.

Myrna Josephine Henry, ARMM-HEART information officer, said the charity packs contained rice, fresh fish, dried fish, breads, peanut butter, coffee, energy drink, sugar and other food items enough for at least two weeks for each of the recipient families.

ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman ordered the distribution of the food assistance in time with his greetings for Muslim Filipinos to “pray for the lives of thousands who have been affected by the conflict,” the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information (BPI) said.

Marawi City came under siege by local terror elements on May 23 last year, prompting full-scale military operations that lasted for five months. Majority of over 200,000 city residents fled to safer grounds mostly in northern Mindanao areas, emptying most of the city’s 96 villages.

The ARMM government has established a crisis management committee and several operation centers to facilitate the delivery of assistance to the affected families in partnership with the local government units of Marawi and Lanao del Sur few weeks after the outbreak of armed clashes.