It has been almost 4 weeks now since Plan International deployed me to Nepal to support the earthquake response operations. I was helping Plan’s recovery and rehabilitation efforts for Typhoon Yolanda-affected communities in the Philippines when the 7.8 earthquake hit Nepal last April 25. As a member of Plan’s emergency roster, I was immediately sent to Kathmandu to assist in relief activities.
A selfie during tea break with the Sindhupalchok Team.
I work with an amazing team of people from different parts of the globe who kindly share their rich experiences and diverse expertise. I am continually impressed by the dedication shown by our colleagues here, most especially our Nepalese staff who are earthquake survivors themselves but still continue to work for affected children and communities.
Life has not been easy in many parts of the country since the earthquake hit. Houses were destroyed and families have been sleeping under tarpaulins or tents, fearing for their lives every time the ground shakes. Markets and stores are still closed and getting access to food has been a great challenge. Children are afraid of aftershocks and are still unable to go back to school. Poor road conditions and Nepal’s mountainous terrain have made it even harder to deliver aid to communities.
Sindhupalchok’s District Development Committee Office (equivalent to our Municipal Hall) in Chautara.
The constant aftershocks have made the situation even worse. The continuous stress has made it difficult for people to get back on their feet and rebuild their lives. When I visited a community in Dolakha, a girl told me that whenever she feels a tremor, her mind empties and she can only think of one thing – “I want to live.”
The regular shakes have also made work more demanding for aid workers. We stop whatever we are doing and go to safer grounds every time there is a tremor. Aftershocks happen even during the wee hours and the strong ones wake us up in the middle of the night.
Delivering aid has been challenging because of Nepal’s rough roads and mountainous terrain.
Second quake
When another strong earthquake (magnitude 7.3) hit last May 12, I was with our team in the district of Sindhupalchok and was bound for one of its remote villages to distribute shelter kits. Our driver managed to evade a landslide that was about to possibly fall on us. We were then caught between two landslides. We immediately ran out of our vehicle, jumped down the rice terraces, and the local people helped to bring us to safer grounds.
Spent the night in a makeshift tent because of the 2nd earthquake. It was not safe for us to travel due to the strong aftershocks and blocked roads.
The shakes went on for around two hours. People were shouting, and the women and children were crying. I was scared too but managed to hide it. I had to be strong and calm for the team and the people in the community.
Amid these difficulties, I am constantly inspired by stories of families helping one another and doing whatever they can to rebuild their lives. Nepalese culture and social structures are diverse and colorful, but the people are generally kind and humble, and are at the same time strong and cohesive.
People help each other build temporary shelters and do farm activities. They even go as far as trekking for hours to carry relief items to their neighbors. In the absence of electricity and mobile networks, community members and leaders share information about relief distributions through word of mouth.
Aid response
Plan has been helping deliver food packs and shelter items since April 28. It has committed to helping children and families in Dolakha, Sindhupalchok, and other previously cut-off communities, meeting urgent needs on shelter, water and sanitation, education, health, and child protection.
Engaging communities in humanitarian work is crucial for people’s dignified survival. We have helped establish accountability mechanisms based on existing community practices to support the humanitarian community in gathering and addressing feedbacks, and improving programs and projects based on the perspectives of both adults and children.
A colleague checking if the community partners know how to use the water kits.
In the past few weeks, we have been in constant communication with communities, finding ways to better understand each other. In the coming weeks, we will help them organize self-help groups.
Working with the affected people is both challenging and fulfilling. We’re learning from them in the process of supporting them. There is more work to be done as significant needs remain very high. Together, we hope to make a difference to the lives of children and communities affected by the devastating earthquakes.
Discussing community feedbacks gathered using Poimapper (an app for data collection) with the Dolakha Team.
But first, why bother with gathering feedback during emergencies?
Humanitarian organizations and volunteer groups should understand that aid work is crucial to people’s dignified survival. Without proper consultation, we might think that we are doing the right things but actually doing more harm – from donating used underwear to unsystematically airdropping relief items to affected communities. It is therefore important that, even during crisis, aid agencies and individuals strive to enhance the quality of their life-saving efforts and that they strengthen their accountability towards those who they seek to help.
Feedbacks are considered to be contributory to “real-time” evaluation as people are able to influence approaches and strategies while the program is being implemented. Specifically, feedback mechanisms are established to:
Gauge and improve quality and effectiveness of response efforts,
Strengthen accountability of aid groups and its partners,
Encourage meaningful participation from the affected men and women, and boys and girls, and
Establish stronger relationships with the communities we are working with.
Gathering feedback, therefore, is empowering and should not be considered as just an icing on the cake. It is as important as delivering goods and services to the affected populations.
There are various methods and communication mediums to gather and respond to feedback from partners and stakeholders. In accordance to Sphere (Core Standard 1: People-Centred Humanitarian Response and Core Standard 2: Performance, Transparency, and Learning) and Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP; “Participation” and “Handling complaints” benchmarks) standards, we must ensure that the program participants, who usually belong to marginalized and minority groups, have the opportunity to have their voices heard.
Below are seven examples of feedback mechanisms in an emergency response (the pictures are taken by me and my colleagues in Plan International in various emergency responses in the Philippines. The credits for the photos go to Plan.):
1. Regular community visits – The approach of working closely with the people provides opportunity for the communities to regularly give feedback to the organization’s activities. Aid agencies should work with existing social structures to exact accountability to state actors and strengthen community groups. We should recognize that establishing good relations is key in getting meaningful feedback.
Plan International visits a Mangguangan mother and daughter in Compostela Valley during its TY Bopha Emergency Response. Photo by me (Enan).
2. Barangay Feedback Committees – As development workers, we believe that humanitarian agencies should not compromise the people’s capacity to help themselves. We support self-help initiatives by helping the affected communities organize barangay feedback committees that will manage feedbacks and provide responses. The committees may be composed of recognized village leaders, sectoral representatives, health workers, program recipients, and other stakeholders as the community may deem necessary.
A Higaonon Tribal Chieftain in Iligan City shares feedback gathered to his barangay’s feedback committee during Plan International’s TS Washi Emergency Response. Photo by Jani Jumaway.
3. Helpdesks – Helpdesks, complaints desks, or feedback desks should be set-up during distributions and orientations as a regular practice. These provide the affected populations the opportunity to clarify project details that may be unclear to them and immediately address issues specific to the distribution (e.g. poor quality of items, missing items, unclear beneficiary selection criteria, etc.).
Plan International’s helpdesk in the distribution of WASH kits in Compostela Valley during Plan’s TY Bopha Emergency Response. Photo by Glynn Rosales.
4. Suggestion boxes – Feedback desks may have suggestion boxes where people are able to voice out suggestions and comments regarding how your organization conducts orientations, distributions, and even community work.
5. Feedback Surveys – A survey form may ensure that affected populations are involved in improving distribution processes. Disaster-affected children and families may be asked if they have received the right amount of goods, if they feel safe and secure, and if they found difficulty in accessing the distribution sites, among others.
A Plan staff gathers feedback from community partners using a feedback survey uploaded in an android device (using Poimapper) in Eastern Samar during Plan’s TY Haiyan Emergency Response. Photo by Mike Reynaldo.
6. SMS and Feedback E-mail Address – We should assume that some of the people in the communities may actually be too afraid or hesitant to approach NGOs in public or the established barangay feedback committees. Since mobile phones and the internet are effective in conveying messages and other information, these may be included in your feedback mechanisms.
Plan International and World Food Program’s Cash-for-Work brochure during their TY Bopha Emergency Response. Brochure designed by Leslie Lao-Francisco (Plan).
7. Project-end Participatory Evaluations – Adapted from the regular exercise of Plan International in its regular program units, participatory assessments check the relevance and effectiveness of the programs against the objectives. A series of community-based reviews may be conducted in partner villages and may be validated and analyzed at the municipal/city and provincial-level. Community and local government partners, including the disaster-affected men, women, boys, and girls assess the programs, identify achievements and failures, and present necessary improvements or adaptations. We understand that community members know what systems are effective for their context.
A PWD leader in Cagayan de Oro City shares her insights in Plan International’s Area-level Synthesis and Analysis as part of the Project-End Participatory Review during its TS Washi Emergency Response. Photo by me (Enan).
My previous employment involves six short-term projects. Four of them swam in the intricacies of monitoring, evaluation, and research (MER), and the other two focused on community organizing and service delivery.
Of the six, all are disaster-related except for one which is a research regarding gender-based violence (GBV) on women working in “entertainment centers” in Olongapo and Angeles. Well, to some extent, you may consider GBV as a disaster to our political and cultural communities.
I miss teaching the most. I used to be a part-time instructor in De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde. I hope someday I’ll be able to teach again.
Being in disaster-related short-term project-based jobs, I learned to adapt like a bat out of hell on elements that are always changing. The nature of work provides no room for excuses and little time for reflection. In fact, if you’ll consider the reflection-action-reflection (RAR) loops, most of the reflection happens during travel time or while chugging a bottle or two after a long stressful day of work.
When Plan International hired me a year ago, I knew I had to talk turkey as quickly as possible. I was placed in the Occidental Mindoro Program Unit (OMPU) in the middle of a fiscal year and months away to the middle of the Country Strategic Plan. The program unit was, and still is, at the peak of its existence, being at its largest in terms of area of coverage, number of projects, caseload, staff headcount, and budget – and there I was, a newcomer, a Bulakeño in Mindoro. (Insert “Englishman in New York” by The Police here)
The pressure made the work more exciting.
Imaginary Friends
Before I became a part of Plan, it never really crossed my mind that I would be using computer programs to help me with development work. Well, of course, the Microsoft Word for making narrative reports and Microsoft Excel for entering gathered quantitative primary data, but I never really thought I would go beyond that as far as MER is concerned. This is something not taught in school.
I’m not really an IT person. When I was hired by Plan, my kasamas assumed that I was a computer expert. You can blame my predecessor for that. You see, the former TORPD, Kuya Egay, was OMPU’s IT god (and still is as a supervisor of one of our grants-funded projects for IPs).
As for me, I have no formal background in tinkering computer programs and troubleshooting computer problems save two Computer Programming subjects I was forced to take as a requirement when I was still a BS Statistics student. I finished one of them after taking the subject twice. As for the other, well, let’s just say after taking it four times, I was not able to finish it because I got suspended right in the middle of the semester. That’s my ultimate excuse right there. I would have earned a 1.0 if UP didn’t suspend me. Haha. Asa.
I finished BS Community Development, putting emphasis on the COMMUNITY, where conventionally, using computers are highly discouraged. Development processes, after all, should not alienate people. I’m a field guy, a mountaineer at that, who loves the rain, the trees, dirt and mud, and everything slimy and sticky. I eat slimy and sticky for breakfast.
I thank God everyday for the creators of YouTube. With just a click away, they provide me with instructional videos that help me understand the nerdy world of computers.
After 12 months in Plan, let me introduce to you some imaginary friends that I have met as a part of Plan’s MER community.
Teamviewer (TV)
You know that friend of yours who you could wake up in the wee hours of the night just for a beer or two? Yup, that’s your drinking buddy. In the MER community, that friend of mine is Teamviewer. She may seem sleepy and groggy but she will still keep up with you just for the heck of it.
I’ve never heard of “TV” before, not until the ICT guy (Kuya Bimbo) from the Country Office hacked his way into my PC to repair an intricate, nerdy, and unfriendly computer problem.
For those who are unfamiliar, TV is a free software you can use to access and control another computer from your computer. Even oceans apart, our ICT guys from Makati use it to fix and troubleshoot computer problems in the Program Units. But us TORPDs, we mostly use it to access the Program and Projects Module.
Program and Projects Module (PPM)
PPM is my adopted son. Yes, I may not be part of his creation but I am his father (at least in our PU). I take care of him, update him, and get stories from him regularly. So, you see, TV ensures that I tend to PPM’s needs even if I am miles away. She’s such an angel.
Since the PPM is one of Plan’s corporate software, I’m not really sure how much information I could give about it publicly. Just to give you an idea, it records, retrieves, and processes data for all the programs and projects of each PU. All inputs are monitored by all levels – the Program Unit, the Country Office, the Regional Office, and even by the International Headquarters.
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
It’s always awkward when you walk into an old friend you already forgot but still remembers you. Good thing SPSS is just a computer program.
This software used to give me nightmares when I was still a BS Statistics student. The newer version is way friendlier, giving it a Microsoft Excel feel. Months ago, I’ve used it to test for item validity and reliability using Cronbach’s alpha, comparing Likert-type and Semantic Differential-type Activity Evaluation Forms.
Baseline Software
That old guy manning the sari-sari store at the corner of the street is just like the CSP3 Baseline Software. He’s always there, whether you need him or not (but most of the time, I’m sure you do).
This software stores both primary and secondary data which serves as our PU’s baseline. The reasons for accessing it are obvious.
Microsoft Excel
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to meet my best friend in the whole wide world, Microsoft Excel. I am always with her no matter where I am (I store the Project Outline Monitoring Tool in my mobile phone when I go out to our areas). She can store the data from the PPM, the SPSS, and Baseline Software which makes my work a whole lot easier. Her workbooks can be designed to function like stand-alone programs and act as monitoring tools. She can store and consolidate both quantitative and qualitative data.
Our PU Finance Manager, Kuya Alex, inspired me in making my own monitoring tools. When I first saw his Budget Balance (it’s the term he uses for the excel file he sends on a weekly basis which basically shows how much budget is left for the PU), I thought it was another corporate software of Plan. It was designed to look like a program, complete with “hyperlinked” menu buttons, and the data is mainly generated by “vlookups” and “pivot tables”. “Macros” are new additions to his work which makes updating his monitoring tool a lot easier.
His work is now being adopted not only by the Country Office but as well as the Asia Regional Office. He’s a genius.
The PO Monitoring Tool
My first monitoring tool came out as a tool to update the status of drafted project outlines – if they were already reviewed by the concerned technical officers and if they were approved by the Program Unit Manager, the Area Manager, or the Country Director.
The nature of Kuya Alex’s work and mine are almost linked together – efficiency and effectiveness of budget expenditure as against to the quality of output delivery. Whereas the PPM can generate the data per project, it cannot consolidate it and be seen in the bigger picture. Output deliveries per location and per quarter came as new additions to my monitoring tool.
I also added a menu to show the areas covered by the program unit, names and numbers of municipalities down to the sitio-level.
SC Baseline
The Microsoft Excel is not only limited for monitoring tools. I designed workbooks to function as baseline programs both for the Sponsored Children and the Mangyan Livelihood Project where encoders enter primary data gathered and can be consolidated using “vlookups” and “pivot tables”.
MER
It is necessary for us MERfolk in the field to discover ways to ensure that Plan, despite its pursuit for technological advancement to improve our efforts in helping develop communities, has both of its feet on the ground. We must guarantee that the people themselves have their own MER tools, derived from their indigenous knowledge and experiences.
After 12 months, I learned a lot from my colleagues who serve the communities with joy, from the people who inspire us to work harder, and from the children who give meaning to our lives. I know I still have a lot to learn. Marami pa akong kakaining bigas, pero hindi naman talaga ako kumakain ng bigas. Sinasaing ko muna. Hehe.
RED TORPEDO 
