TIM eMagazine Issue 3 | Page 49

TIM eMagazine TIMe Magazine Vol.1 Issue 3 Through the support of hundreds of individual donors, corporate allies, and development partners, Bancas for the Philippines was able to provide assistance to Haiyan-hit coastal communities like the town of New Washington in Aklan by teaching them how to build their own fibreglass boats. (Toni Munar / WWF) T he waves that once roared and ripped into the coastal community of New Washington, Aklan are calm today. Before daybreak, small-scale fishers boldly cast their nets into the very waters they used to fear. New Washington is among the localities that suffered the brunt of typhoon Haiyan, the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded. Haiyan claimed 7200 lives, displaced millions of families, and left economic damage worth PHP 500 Billion. The storm also destroyed the wooden bancas of about 146,700 small-scale fishers. Erma Repedro and her family survived the Category-5 storm but her husband continued heading out to sea using his damaged boat – braving unpredictable and sometimes turbulent waters. “My husband had to make do with his old banca so that he can continue feeding our family. There were days when I feared he will no longer come back. We have very little money to repair our boat’s holes, so I always worried that his boat would sink,” she said. 49