Rising Up from the Rubble of Disasters
by Marinel Ubaldo
Imagine, living in a coastal fishing community, with fresh food, unpolluted air, a community of people sharing their food and resources. Imagine growing up in a place where you can play on white sand on a beach, you can swim in the ocean whenever you like, and in your free time, you can get seashells from the nearby shore. Imagine your childhood running around beautiful beaches, playing like tomorrow does not matter, going home to your family for a delicious and happy meal.
That’s my childhood.
Hi, I’m Marinel Ubaldo, a 24-year old young professional who is trying to live a normal life after surviving the wrath of Super-typhoon Haiyan. I grew up in Matarinao, Salcedo, Eastern Samar, a coastal community facing the pacific ocean. My childhood seems to be perfect, but aside from those perfect moments I had, my community faces frequent disasters, most especially typhoons. The Philippines faces an average of 20 typhoons per year.
Growing up near the Pacific Ocean, I have been used to typhoons -- it’s nothing new to me. Our house has always endured every storm and we seldom need to evacuate. Not until super typhoon Haiyan happened.
The night before Haiyan struck, we had no more electricity. Together with my whole family, we were already at the evacuation center which was 10 metres away from our house. I brought an encyclopedia with me so I can just read until the storm passes. My bag was only filled with my phone, charger, notebook and pen. I didn’t bring any clothes because I thought we could go home immediately when the storm subsided. It has always been that way. Never did it cross my mind that we will have nothing left of our house, but only ¼ of its flooring and about 3 of its columns. We did not really know what storm surge meant until we experienced it ourselves. Around 3 o’clock in the morning on November 8, 2013, everyone was panicking as the winds became more intense. We wanted to evacuate again because there might be a tsunami. I saw a woman carrying her child who almost had her head cut-off because of the GI sheets blown away by the strong winds.
I couldn’t fully describe what was happening at that moment. There were plenty of families with their children in tow, rushing to seek refuge in our evacuation center because the evacuation center they were in got destroyed. The roof, windows, and doors of the building we were in also got destroyed. Many of us got injured because of the broken glass windows and flying debris, and 11 people died in our village. I went back to our house even though the winds were still strong, as I wanted to see if we still had a home to go back to. Although it was still dangerous for me to go back, I wanted to save the box that has a sentimental value to me.
This box was very special to me because it was filled with my personal things- my literary works, the certificates and the medals I earned in school. For me, that box symbolizes who I am, my achievements, my self-worth. Nothing was left of our home. And losing that box felt like losing my identity, my dreams, my significance as a person.
Three days after Haiyan, we were left in isolation. We had nothing to eat but cassava. We had no food, water, electricity, and secure shelter. We had no change of clothes so we were all wet and cold. I was confused and devastated by the reality I was facing. I was only 16 and was about to graduate high school at that time, and I wasn’t even sure if I could graduate, let alone continue my college education. I lost my books, my uniform. How can I continue studying when my parents cannot afford to send me to school anymore because we lost our livelihood?
For 3 months I was not able to go to school because it got destroyed. March 2014 came and we needed to fast track all lessons so we could graduate by April 2014. After Haiyan happened, it seemed like my future even became more uncertain because my parents did not earn enough to send me to college. Luckily, I was able to get a scholarship for my college education, and was able to work by facilitating training on climate change adaptation and mitigation.
I had no choice but to do it so I could sustain my needs, especially because our fishing livelihood stopped for months because my father’s boat was broken, and there were no fish to catch. We couldn’t bear the thought of eating fish that may have fed on the dead bodies of our neighbors, and people we know. My father had to sail to other places just to go fishing but he would end up with little to nothing. There was a huge depletion of fish catch after Haiyan and it made surviving even more difficult.
I first learned about Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction in October 2012. At the age of 15, I became a child facilitator and I had the opportunity to visit remote communities and schools to educate people about the causes and effects of Climate Change, and the measures necessary to adapt and mitigate its effects.
Eight years later, my nerves still get the best of me whenever I hear the crash of the ocean waves. I get anxious and restless when it rains because I fear that another Haiyan will happen again. It took me three years before I was able to go into the ocean again. It’s sad because the ocean was our childhood friend, I grew up with it. It has always provided everything we need. But now, whenever we look at the ocean, there’s always fear because we can never forget how it took everything away from us. Super Typhoon Haiyan was the strongest typhoon ever recorded. If climate change continues, the Philippines will be experiencing more and stronger typhoons. Super Typhoons will become a normal phenomenon, and it would mean that my children will live their lives fighting, and surviving super typhoons.
My experience of Super-Typhoon Haiyan motivated me to do more. Sharing has been the key to healing for me. I realized Climate Change is not just an issue of adaptation and mitigation but also an issue of human rights. This is the start when I started lobbying with the government, delivering talks around the US, Europe, and Asia.
In 2015, we submitted, along with other grassroots organizations like the fisherman, farmers, IPs, and others, a landmark petition to the Commission of Human Rights of the Philippines to investigate 47 carbon majors for their contributions to human rights violations linked to climate impact. And, in 2018 I have served as a community witness during the public hearing in New York, and in September I was one of those who did a lone protest in front of the Shell Company in Bonifacio Global City calling them to face the people. Finally, after 4 years of battling with the carbon majors, we have won and the result of the first in the world Climate Justice petition is a basis for future actions. We are nearing the justice that we deserve. We want the carbon majors to acknowledge their responsibility for what they have done to us, to my community and other vulnerable communities around the world. But these companies didn’t show up in any of the hearings conducted. They did not have the decency to hear the stories of people who have suffered because of their business practices.
My global campaign with Amnesty International for Write for Rights called on the Philippine government to give decent relocation to survivors of Super-typhoon Haiyan gathered almost 600,000 support worldwide.
Also, together with my 3 friends, we have founded the Youth Leaders Environmental Action Federation that is a youth-led organization based in Eastern Visayas. The organization partners with different youth organizations in communities and schools. We give mentorship and training to other youth organizations on where and how to start with their advocacy, projects and programs. We are the first organization who organized the Climate Youth Strike in Eastern Visayas. We also have submitted and lobbied a petition to the City of Tacloban to ban single-use plastics.
There are still a lot of initiatives we have on the ground that are not being supported. Our leaders and big organizations should seriously invest more in grassroots-initiated projects.
At the end of the day, we all want a future where we are not afraid to live, dream, laugh, and love. A future that is safe for everybody, a future that is for everyone and not just for a few. We all just want climate justice for vulnerable communities everywhere.
About
MARINEL UBALDO is an advocate for climate justice and the environment. She is a Registered Social Worker and one of the Founders of the Youth Leaders for Environmental Action Federation, a youth-led organization based in Eastern Visayas that aims to mentor youth individuals and organizations in climate advocacy. She is also the Advocacy Officer for Ecological Justice and Youth Engagement of Living Laudato Si' Philippines. She is currently the Philippine Country Coordinator for UN COY16 Glasgow while co-leading the implementation of one of the most comprehensive youth gatherings this year, the Local Conference of Youth 2021. Marinel has been actively involved in educating communities - especially, the youth and children- about climate change and the roles they can take to adapt and mitigate to its effects. She has spoken to world leaders on behalf of Filipinos during the opening of the UNFCCC COP 21 in Paris and in UNFCCC COP 25 in Madrid. She is a petitioner and has acted as a Resource Person during the Climate Justice Liability Public Hearing during the Climate Week in New York USA last September 2018. She has been trained by former US Vice-President Al Gore as a Climate Reality Leader. Her global campaign with Amnesty International calling on the Philippine government to ensure relocation of Super-Typhoon Haiyan survivors generated almost 600,000 actions from around the world. She has been building impactful campaigns, forming strong collaborations with the government, social and environmental organizations, and the youth. Most of all, she aims co-power and build agency among frontline communities around the world, so we can have a safer place to live in, and now she continues to tell her story in the global platform aiming to shed light on the reality of climate change, and the urgency for world leaders to keep their climate commitments and for the rest of the world to act on it.
More on Maribel
https://bit.ly/3xK708b
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/06/27/asia-pacific/climate-activists-asia/
https://nobelwomensinitiative.org/meet-marinel-sumook-ubaldo-philippines/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yngaOmCZ7QE
https://earth.org/marinel-ubaldo/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/tag/marinel-ubaldo/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/17/gen-z-on-how-to-save-the-world-young-climate-activists-speak-out?fbclid=IwAR1sVJ9xQN3X71hk6QUK3K6fnQUOcRiUGs1gRV4el8sHmk2YRBySI1lVQJ8
https://bit.ly/3uB8KjX