ROXAS City-After typhoon Yolanda, a usual scenario  in Barangay Punta Cogon herewere women playing tong its, bingo and bog-oy. These past months, however, most of them have stopped engaging in these gambling games.

Tong-its is a local card game while both bingo and bog-oy are both betting games using dice and shells.

The reduced number of women gambling was attributed to the establishment of a Women Friendly Space (WFS) in the barangay. With the joint efforts of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), United Nations Population Fund, provincial government and local government of Roxas City, other International Human Organizations (IHOs), the WFS was established in the barangay which suffered the wreckage of the typhoon.

“Mothers used to engage in bingo, tong-its and bog-oy. Because of the WFS, the behavior of women in our barangay has changed. Instead of gambling, they are attending sessions at the WFS,” said 53-year-old Susana Bornales, a Day Care Worker and at the same time WFS facilitator.

ESTABLISHED WFS

The WFS is a facility that utilizes a strategy in mainstreaming gender as a cross cutting issue in providing humanitarian responses in evacuation camps, transitional sites or disaster affected communities. It addresses the specific needs of women affected by the disaster and provides a more systematic, organized and gender-responsive way of delivering services.

In Punta Cogon, nearly 300 women are availing of services. Activities already implemented include lectures on disaster preparedness, what to do during and after the typhoon or disaster, breastfeeding, and parenting responsibilities; cash for work for facilitators funded by UNFPA; and livelihood coaching such as skills on dressmaking and craftsmanship using seashells.

Graciela Van der Poel of UNFPA said that they are helping out the government in putting up WFS in the country as it strives along early recovery for Yolanda victims because “during emergencies women and girls take on additional roles and responsibilities, have differentiated needs along the humanitarian continuum—all phases of an emergency, face more restrictions than men when accessing humanitarian assistance, frequently under-represented in assistance committees and have less opportunities to exercise leadership in humanitarian response and women and girls are seen as victims, not as key humanitarian actors.”

She said that the objective is to ensure gender equality, such that women, girls, men and boys, are given equal opportunities even during and after disasters.
Aside from lectures, women were also given flashlights, whistles, brassieres, underwears and sanitary napkins.

LESS HUSBAND-WIFE CONFLICT

According to Bornales, the WFS has also resulted to lesser husband and wife conflicts.
“When men heard of their wives talking that there are laws protecting them, some men who had violent tendencies stopped hurting their wives,” said Bornales.

Currently, there are five WFS areas in Region 6. These are located in Guinticgan and Cawayan in Carles, Iloilo; Botongon, Estancia in Iloilo; and Punta Cogon and Cagay in Roxas City, Capiz.

Is being mulled that another site will be established in Concepcion. Also, Gabriela is considering the establishment of additional WFS in other municipalities in Iloilo which were battered by the typhoon./dswd6/May Rago-Castillo