Japan allots $500,000 to help ‘Yolanda’ victims who lost their jobs

Japan has allotted $500,000 to help victims who lost jobs because of typhoon Yolanda that devastated the Eastern and Central Visayas.

These funds will be given to the International Labor Organization/Japan Fund for Building Social Safety Nets in Asia and the Pacific to “help ensure occupational safety and skills training for workers involved in recovery activities,” a news release said.

Some 5.2 million persons in the Visayas–the Philippines’ third-largest island–have had their livelihoods destroyed or disrupted, according to ILO data.

Of this figure, 2.3 million were already in vulnerable employment and living in poverty even before typhoon Yolanda struck, ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Yoshiteru Uramoto said.

The ILO/Japan Fund for Building Social Safety Nets (SSN) in Asia and the Pacific was set up after an agreement between the ILO and the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare was signed in June 2011.

The SSN Fund aims to support countries in Asia and the Pacific to build and strengthen the basis of social safety nets through capacity building and networking, enhance activities of trade unions and employers’ organizations and promote disaster relief.

“The ILO is grateful to the Government of Japan for this valuable financial contribution, which will be used to support the affected population who lost their jobs and source of livelihood due to Typhoon Haiyan,” Uramoto said.

Typhoon Yolanda swept through the Central Philippines on November 8 killing more than five thousand people and causing damage in 44 provinces across nine regions.

Over 13 million people have had their lives turned upside down and over one million houses were either destroyed or severely damaged. –Pots de Leon, InterAksyon.com