Back to sea after the storm
It is almost 3pm as Junry Enoyan, 36, docks his freshly painted boat in the harbor of General Luna, on the southern Philippine island of Siargao. Junry has spent the whole night and most of the day fishing on the open sea.
Although he is tired, he is happy to finally have a working boat again. In December 2021 his boat was heavily damaged due to Typhoon Odette, which made its first landfall on Siargao and left the island in ruins.
Action Against Hunger provided trainings and cash assistance to Junry for restoring his family’s livelihood. The support measures are part of the project ‘Emergency Assistance to Support Local Recovery Capacity of Families and Communities Affected by Typhoon Odette’, funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID-BHA).
Junry smiles as he lifts the shiny fish out of the cooling box and lets them slide to his carrying pail. The weather had been calm and he had come across a large school of tuna.
Ivan Crisologo, 15, who works at the fish market after school, helps Junry carry the heavy load to shore. They do not need to walk far. From the water they directly enter the back of the fish market.
Junry weighs his catch on the scale of market vendors Roel and Judith Melindo. 35 kilo, Junry is pleased. It was a fruitful day at sea.
Roel pays Junry PHP 3195 for today’s catch, or PHP 90 per kilo. Junry’s tuna will likely be sold the same day to locals, tourists, or to one of the many restaurants or resorts on the island.
Junry’s wife Bebin, 33, and their two youngest children Alas, 3, and Bea, 2, are excited to welcome their husband and father home. Junry is exhausted from the long hours at sea, but his eyes light up as he sees his family. The couple’s five other children are not home today. The two eldest (18 and 16) moved out for their studies and the three middle ones (12, 10 and 6) are visiting relatives for Christmas.
Junry is a gentle, quiet man. His wife does most of the talking. She shows a photo of the ruins of their old home, taken just days after the typhoon. “I cannot even explain my feelings of seeing the house so damaged,” she says, “But we were even more worried about the boat, fishing is our only source of income.” Junry and Bebin found their boat in another part of the barangay. It had been swept onto land and dragged across stones and debris, its walling was completely destroyed.
With no more house or income, the family relied on relief aid to survive. A private donor provided them with materials to build a new home, a first step towards recovery. A few months later, Junry, Bebin and other typhoon-affected fisherfolk in their barangay attended a financial literacy training and received PHP 15,000 cash assistance from Action Against Hunger. They immediately bought fishing hooks and lines, plywood, epoxy, nails, and paint, and hired labor to help with the repair of the boat. After 3 days of hard work the boat was back in the water. They named it ALASBEA, after their two youngest children.
Through the financial literacy training the couple learned how to monitor and manage their finances. Bebin does the administration: “Every day after Junry comes home I write down the catch and earnings. Now we know much better how much money comes in.”
Once they have some savings, Junry and Bebin want to start cultivating subsistence crops on a nearby island to ensure the food security of the family. “There are times when Junry cannot go fishing because of his health or the weather, especially during monsoon season. We want to plant crops like banana and sweet potato so that we will always have enough food to eat, even when there is no money to buy rice,” explains Bebin.
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With the support of Action Against Hunger, Junry and his family got back on their feet after the disaster and are now building the foundation for a resilient and bright future.
- Written for Action Against Hunger