May 7, 2024
Tzu Chi supports San Juan City’s proactive response to disasters
By Joy Rojas
What happens after you lose your home to a fire?
If you’re a resident of a low-income community, you’ll make do with temporary shelter in an evacuation tent set up in a public school, gymnasium, or multi-purpose court. You’ll rely on food and clothing from public and private sectors, and you’ll earmark the financial aid you received from a government agency to purchase hollow blocks and galvanized iron sheets for your new home—that is, unless you’ve already scavenged for materials from your old, charred home.
“It’s really difficult to be a victim of a fire. Anyone who has experienced this type of tragedy will see their lives change,” says San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, who has met his fair share of fire victims in his 17 years of public service.
Perhaps that’s why he goes the extra mile to restore normalcy and hope into his constituents’ lives. “You can’t just wait for things to happen. You have to seek out all possible resources,” he says of his proactive approach. “The more you can provide for your people, the faster they can go back to normalcy.
“I tap all possible networks: friends, family, organizations, non-government organizations. I’m driven to look for those who can help. And so far, those I’ve approached have been very responsive.”
The help he obtains ranges from long-term to immediate assistance. At an April 30 relief distribution in San Juan City Hall for the 196 families affected by a fire in Barangay Batis last April 16, the crowd cheered as Zamora made a surprise announcement. Each family would receive permanent housing—“Decent, dignified homes you could call your own,” he said—through the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD). Through a call made personally by the mayor to DHSUD Secretary Jerry Acuzar, Barangay Batis will be the first beneficiary of the 4PH Program in San Juan.
For the meantime, the displaced community can move into a staging area—prefabricated homes courtesy of DHSUD, “because you can’t live in the San Juan gym forever,” he says.
To address beneficiaries’ basic needs, he got in touch with the Tzu Chi Foundation. Volunteers responded by providing representatives from each of the families with a P500 voucher from Puregold, 10-kg sack of rice, one blanket, one sleeping mat, one pail, one casserole, one frying pan, one spatula, 10 plates, 10 drinking cups, 10 spoons, 10 forks, shampoo, and biscuits.
“For this fire, you’re the first one I called, because I know it is within your thrust to help,” he says. Tzu has answered San Juan’s calls for help many times before: in medical and dental missions, and relief for disasters and the pandemic.
In forging relationships with an institution whose goal is to uplift the lives and spirits of the down and out, Mayor Zamora has not only found a lifelong partner in Tzu Chi, he’s found a friend. And San Juaneños are all the better for it.
“Thank you very much for your support, not just to our fire victims, but also to those who have benefited from your many, many programs all throughout the years,” he says. “May we continue to work together in the years and decades to come.”
Before local government leaders and constituents at a fire relief in San Juan City Hall on April 30, Mayor Francis Zamora (standing) reveals that each of the beneficiary families of Barangay Batis will receive free housing courtesy of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development. 【Photo by Marella Saldonido】
To restore normalcy and hope in a community that lost its home to a fire, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora goes the extra mile for help. “You can’t just wait for things to happen. You have to seek out all possible resources. I tap all possible networks: friends, family, organizations, non-government organizations. And so far, those I’ve approached have been very responsive.” 【Photo by Marella Saldonido】
Before the distribution of relief, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora (back row, second from right) joins reliable partner Tzu Chi Foundation in prayer. 【Photo by Marella Saldonido】
Tzu Chi volunteers listen to San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora during the distribution of relief. A public servant for 17 years and counting, he has encountered Tzu Chi volunteers many times in programs for the disadvantaged. 【Photo by Marella Saldonido】
Well aware of the hardships his constituents go through during disasters, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora helps in any way he can, from personally calling government agencies and organizations like the Tzu Chi Foundation to participating in relief drives. 【Photo by Marella Saldonido】