Progress Report on Damage from Typhoon Odette in Negros Island, Philippines

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OISCA Bago Training Center located on Negros Island, was severely damaged by the typhoon Odette which directly hit the central part of the Philippines from the 16th to the 17th of December, 2021.

Large trees fell on the center’s buildings and damaged several facilities, including the boiler, forcing a temporary suspension of pre-training for young people who were scheduled to visit Japan under various programs such as agricultural training and technical intern training.

In addition, the center serves as a base for sericultural extension projects, and many farmers who produce cocoons on the island also suffered serious damage, as their sericultural facilities were completely destroyed in some cases.

Against this backdrop, OISCA launched an appeal for support for the Negros disaster-hit area from last December 21, and received a large amount of generous donations from the members and supporters from all over Japan.

Here are the detailed progress reports of the damaged restoration.

The restoration of the Center’s buildings.

About 60 large trees that fell on buildings and other structures were sawn into lumber utilizing 4 chainsaws. The recycled wood will be used to make beds, desks, chairs, and other items.

The boiler building, whose roof was directly hit by a large tree, is an indispensable part of the sericultural project’s silk-spinning process. Therefore, we made repairs to the boiler buildings a priority. In order to meet the demand for raw silk in the domestic Philippine market, the boiler was restarted in February and is now milling and able to produce raw silk.

Since March, we have been able to offer sericultural training for sericultural farmers and Japanese language classes for trainees visiting Japan. Meanwhile, restoration work on the heavily damaged facilities, such as dinning room, kitchen, and dormitories, began in early May and is scheduled for completion around July.

Repairing the dining room building

Support for sericultural farmers with materials and equipment

   In Negros Island, 12 sericultural farms in the Mahinay area, 16 farms in the San Carlos area, and 16 farms in the Calatrava areas were severely damaged. The Mahinay areas was particularly badly hit and needed to be rebuilt, so the project began with construction planning.

   The San Carlos and Calatrava areas, on the other hand, repaired the existing nurseries instead of constructing new ones. Immediately after the typhoon disaster, sericultural extension workers went around to each farmhouse to check what materials were needed for each farmhouse and delivered repair materials.

   On March 22, JICA Philippine Office in Manila provided support to sericultural farmers with materials and equipment. Materials such as sand, gravel, cement, tin sheets and wood for the construction and repair of more than 30 nurseries were delivered to OISCA Bago Training Center. After their arrival, the delivery of the materials and equipment were completed by sericultural extension workers by early May. Currently, the reconstruction of the nurseries at each farmhouse is underway.

Fermer and sericultural house