The European Union on Monday announced the €500,000 or nearly P28 million in funding to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the families affected by a series of strong earthquakes that rocked parts of Mindanao in October.
“The earthquakes have affected people in communities that were already poor and vulnerable. Our focus is to bring urgently needed assistance to those most heavily impacted by the disasters,” said Christos Stylianides, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management in a statement.
The EU Delegation in Manila said the fund would support the global humanitarian aid organization Action Against Hunger in delivering emergency shelter, food, clean water, psychosocial support and other vital aid to the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, including female-headed households, people with disabilities and indigenous people.
An EU humanitarian expert has been deployed to the earthquake zone to assess the situation and the needs on the ground.
More than 330,000 people have been affected, over 100,000 of whom have been displaced, by four powerful and shallow earthquakes of above 6 magnitude in Mindanao’s regions of Davao del Sur and North Cotabato in October.