In the spirit of the holiday season, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has coordinated with concerned local government units (LGUs) in bringing Christmas cheers to Mt. Kanlaon evacuees through simultaneous holiday-special activities in the evacuation centers in Regions 6 (Western Visayas) and 7 (Central Visayas).

DSWD Assistant Secretary for Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) Irene Dumlao said food distribution, gift-giving, and fun-filled games, among other interactive activities for all ages, were held for the evacuees on Dec. 24 and 25.

“We worked together to pool our resources to organize these activities so that we can bring in the spirit of Christmas to our Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) despite the challenging times,” Dumlao, who is also the DSWD’s spokesperson, said in a news release on Thursday.

During the holidays, personnel of DSWD Field Offices (FO) 6 and 7 remained on duty to facilitate unhampered resource augmentation to LGUs and well-coordinated aid for IDPs, she said.

“This has been the protocol since Kanlaon erupted and raised its volcanic status to Alert Level 3. We make sure that even on weekends or holidays, our disaster response teams are on full alert to swiftly address the needs of affected families and individuals,” Dumlao said.

The DSWD has already provided humanitarian assistance worth over PHP52 million to families affected by the volcanic activities of Mt. Kanlaon based on the report of the Disaster Response Operations Management, Information and Communication (DROMIC) as of 6 a.m. Thursday.

A total of 11,883 families have been reportedly affected, with 4,454 families or 14,186 individuals taking refuge in the 32 open evacuation centers.

“Rest assured that the DSWD will remain in close coordination with the concerned localities. We are not putting our guards down and will continue to extend all required assistance until our kababayans are able to return to their normal lives and the situation settles down,” Dumlao said. (PNA)