Since she was in Grade 3, 19-year-old Christine Coronacion has been very active in Reina Federation’s programs for children and youth in partnership with ChildFund. She was particularly drawn to their children and youth-led disaster risk reduction and management (CYDRM) activities. She says she used to be happy whenever classes were called off during typhoons, like most kids. However, after gaining a deeper knowledge of disasters from training given by Reina Federation, she started to question why anyone would feel happy about them. With the organization’s support, she herself has now become a CYDRM training facilitator, as well as an anchor for Reina Federation’s radio broadcasts, helping equip her fellow children and youth with vital knowledge of their role in disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM).
As a staunch advocate of CYDRM, Christine explains that like adults, children and youth in the community also have the capacity to build resilience against disasters. “Children and youth are some of the most vulnerable during disasters, but how can we save ourselves if we don’t have the right knowledge? Yes, we have adults to guide us, but they’re not always there beside us.” There have been many cases in the past where only adults were involved in community DRRM planning; children and youth were not invited because their abilities were being underestimated. Thus, they were unaware of the barangay’s plans – such as how to evacuate, what to bring, and whom to call – should a disaster strike. She adds that if an adult simply passes down information to a child or youth, they might get intimidated and might not appreciate what is being said to them. However, if another child or youth is speaking to them, they feel more comfortable expressing their feelings and can better understand what they need to do.
Christine relates that their response during Typhoon Vamco, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Ulysses, in November 2020 proved that children and youth can help each other a lot. This typhoon caused extensive damage to houses, schools, roads, and crops when it made its third landfall in her hometown of General Nakar in Quezon province. Instead of getting discouraged, Christine and her fellow volunteers put their CYDRM training into action. Apart from helping her own family, she guided children and youth in the affected barangays on what to do before, during, after the disaster. Disasters like these also cause great trauma, especially to children and youth, so another role of volunteers like Christine is to help them move on from this trauma through mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services. She notes how important MHPSS is because having someone their age to talk to greatly helped in easing these kids’ emotional burdens.
She happily shared that children and youth in her community are now invited to DRRM planning sessions, where their opinions and viewpoints regarding disasters are heard, including what help they can give to the community during these events. Many more kids have asked to be involved in the fun CYDRM learning activities the volunteers conduct. It may take a while to overcome others’ resistance to normalizing CYDRM, but Christine remains hopeful that their tireless advocacy will eventually win them over to join this cause.
For her active facilitation and advocacy work, Christine is a proud recipient of the Bidang Bata at Bidang Kabataan Award (Heroic Child and Heroic Youth Award) bestowed by ChildFund Philippines. But more than the accolades, she is most thankful to Reina Federation and ChildFund for developing her abilities and talents and widening her world. She wants to keep supporting their programs for as long as she can and will make sure to train more CYDRM champions to pass the torch to.
Inspired by her MHPSS advocacy, Christine is studying to become a licensed psychologist. She dreams of getting into medical school to become a psychiatrist but knows it will be costly. Regardless of the path she takes, she vows to go back to help her community and continue to serve as an inspiration. “I want all children and youth to be safe in the face of disasters. I want their voices to be heard and their abilities recognized. I want the whole world to see that a child is not ‘just’ a child. We have much to contribute; there is no limit to what we can do if we all work together. At the end of the day, young or old, we will help each other.”
