By Deron Denton
With sustained winds of 105 miles per hour, the typhoon was like a raging giant batting at flies.
Flooding in the Philippines is common due the frequency with which the island nation is struck by tropical storms.
Emelyn Raymundo, who was 13 when typhoon Ketsana struck, was home with her siblings and her father. The Philippines government had cancelled school and Emelyn was doing chores. "There was so much rain," she says without a hint of irony, "I felt the water was being wasted, so I decided to wash our clothes with it."
Emelyn tells us that she and her family weren't initially worried. The Raymundos' house sits higher than most of the surrounding homes, and it doesn't usually flood during the rainy season. The first sign that they might be in real danger, says Emelyn, was when their neighbor's tin roof blew onto the Raymundos' home.
"Then the waters rose and began flooding the houses of our neighbors," recalls Emelyn. So her father left their house and began helping his neighbors salvage their belongings. After that, things began unfolding as if in fast-forward. The water level outside the Raymundo home reached a point it never had in previous storms. That, Emelyn says, is when the fear first struck her.
Holding Candy, Emelyn stands near the place where she found the girl.
Emelyn believes it was only a matter of minutes from the time her father left until water began trickling into their home. She quickly gathered their most important belongings – like clothes, school supplies, books and kitchen items – onto their kitchen table.
By now, Emelyn could tell that her immediate neighbor was in trouble – she could see that the water was several feet high in her home, and Emelyn could hear the woman crying for help. "She was alone," says Emelyn, "with no one to help her carry her things from her house." Emelyn told her siblings to stay put while she went to help her neighbor.
"Everybody was in a rush, trying to salvage things," Emelyn says. "The water was muddy and dark. It was up to my waist inside their house, but outside it was much deeper and it was flowing in fast currents."
The sidewalks were rushing like rivers, making it difficult to stay grounded. After a few trips back and forth, carrying things to safety, Evelyn remembers finding herself alone inside her neighbor's house. For some reason, she decided to take a look out the door at the back of the house.
Looking down, says Emelyn, "I saw many things being carried away by the current, like pieces of wood, bags of trash, huge branches…then I thought I saw a hand, which made me look closer. That was when I saw a baby, bobbing in and out of the water."
Not knowing how to swim, Emelyn didn't know what she could do. "I was afraid," she admits. "But I was thinking fast. Or maybe I was not thinking. I was just doing things."
Emelyn credits sponsorship for making her life better, especially in terms of educational benefits.
Amazingly, Emelyn saw a plastic basin caught in an eddy near the house. "I grabbed that and used it to help me get to the child," she recalls, "struggling as I waded through the water.
I knew the water was deep because my feet weren't touching the ground. I managed to get close to the child and put her in the basin. I initially thought she was dead because she was pale and not moving. "I waded back toward the house, but it was harder because the basin was heavy and we were both sinking. When I finally reached the door, which was half-submerged in water, I called out for someone to take the baby and to help us out of the water.
"The baby was unconscious and she was rushed to a government center, where they pressed on her chest. She coughed up a lot of water and then began to breathe. The baby's mother," says Emelyn, "showed up soon after that, crying and thanking me. She said her baby, Candy, is alive because of me."
Emelyn's heroism during a crisis would not come as a surprise to those who know her. She has been in the sponsorship program for over six years, and since getting involved with the Youth Program in the past few years, Emelyn has emerged as a real leader.
She's even been chosen as a representative for her community and will have the chance to present solutions to the president of the Philippines on ways to help alleviate poverty at an upcoming symposium.
When asked how sponsorship has helped her, she tells us, "Sponsorship has given me great opportunities." Emelyn says that her parents couldn't afford to send all her siblings to school; but thanks to the school supplies and clothing and other benefits, she has been able to stay in school.
"Being a sponsored youth," adds Emelyn, "is a very unique experience. Aside from the material benefits, we also get the opportunity to learn and improve skills by joining youth activities. There is no other help like this in our community…this kind of help only comes from Children International."
Candy and her mother think the same thing about Emelyn…she helped when no one else could.
