ILOILO CITY, March 25 (PNA) — The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) Antique chapter has assured that they have no expired relief goods distributed for “Yolanda” victims as had been reported in other regions.

Nilo Guanco, spokesperson of PNRC Antique chapter, said that on their end, as soon as they received the Balikbayan Boxes containing relief goods from foreign donors, their Red Cross volunteers immediately sorted the contents and distribute them to victims of typhoon Yolanda.

“We did not even know what were inside the boxes when we received them. What we did was sort them according to kinds. We inspected the contents like the canned goods to find out if these are still okay because we understand that the shipment via LBC took quite sometime. We looked at their expiration dates. Then we invited some volunteers to pack them and distributed them to the municipalities hardest hit by typhoon Yolanda,” said Guanco.

Guanco said that before they distribute elief goods, they first submit the names and number of beneficiaries in a particular town and once they receive the go signal from the PNRC Central Office, it’s only then that they proceed with the distribution.

“We first distributed the perishable goods like noodles and canned foods. Then we distributed the rest of the contents like used clothes and other non-food items,” Guanco said, adding that as a policy of the Red Cross, they integrate the disaster preparedness drills with the recipients.

“While distributing the relief goods, we do simulation drills with the recipients to teach them survival skills so that they would know what to do in times of calamities,” Guanco said.

At present, all the food items received by the Red Cross Antique chapter from foreign Red Cross organizations like the German Red Cross, Spain, Netherlands and Japan Red Cross have been distributed.

PNRC Antique head Esther Buenaventura said that there are still several boxes of non-food items that have yet to be distributed but they prefer to reserve them for the coming typhoons or calamities. (PNA)
LAP/AJP/RPALCALDE/VLO