How football is helping ‘Yolanda’ victims recover
Young local footballer John Wayne Regis, 19, hopes that the short film about the plight of local football players in Tacloban will encourage people all over the world to continue supporting the recovery efforts and not forget them. MATIKAS SANTOS/INQUIRER.net.
MANILA, Philippines — The fame and influence of the world’s most popular sport, Football, is being used as leverage by the United Nations to highlight recovery efforts in areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan).
A short film produced by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) about the plight of young local football players in Tacloban, Leyte aims to encourage people all over the world to keep helping the recovery efforts in the Visayas region.
“By telling the story of how the typhoon devastated the lives of local football players, I wanted to tell the story of an entire region,” Swiss filmmaker Michael Steiner said Thursday during the film’s official launch in the Philippines.
“There is still a long way to go to rebuild and we need to keep reminding everyone that people in Visayas need their support,” he said.
A one-minute preview of the film titled “The Football Wonder of Tacloban” was shown during half time of the UNDP Match Against Poverty that was attended by at least 21,000 football fans.
The annual Match Against Poverty was held this year in Bern, Switzerland to raise funds for survivors of Yolanda. Football legends Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo, both UNDP goodwill ambassadors, participated in the match and raised awareness for the recovery efforts of UNDP.
Steiner, whose wife of four years is from Tacloban, said that he also wanted to focus on the city as the birthplace of the Philippine’s football team, the Azkals, which has risen to become one of the best football teams in Asia.
He said that the film was low budget despite equal funding from UNDP and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Some of the UNDP staff doing relief work in Tacloban had to improvise as a film crew during the three day shoot, Steiner said.
UNDP Resident Representative, Luiza Carvalho, described the film as “a wonderful opportunity to remind the world that recovery is the most complex and longer part of a disaster response and we need support from all partners.”
The eight-minute film, along with the full match, will be broadcast to 74 countries including the United States, Brazil, France, Indonesia, and Australia.
Worldwide Interest
Swiss filmmaker Michael Steiner hopes that his short film will strike a chord with the millions of football fans all over the world and encourage them to donate to UNDP and help the recovery efforts. MATIKAS SANTOS/INQUIRER.net
UNDP Philippines country manager Maurice Dewulf said that 2014 was a World Cup year during which there would be an immense amount of interest in Football all over the world.
“Normally when you have this year of the World Cup, which is every four years, there is enormous energy and interest across the planet [for football]. People want to hear about football [and] everybody gets energized for this big competition coming up,” Dewulf said.
“One dimension of the short film is we try to something that links to football to have that energy, to have that interest in football to come to the Philippines,” he said.
An estimated two billion people could be watching the World Cup which goes to show just how popular football is in the world.
“If we can get this short film to be watched by them [and] even if just one percent decide to make a contribution to the response to the Haiyan disaster, we are talking about 20 million people that might do something,” Dewulf said.
“What we see now in the Yolanda area, even in that environment of destruction which is terrible, young people start picking football up again and by doing that they give such a positive attitude when it comes to their lives in the region,” he said.
Last February 14, Football superstar David Beckham, also a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, brought cheer to children in evacuation centers in Tacloban.
Relief from Problems, Stress
John Wayne Regis, 19, one of the young local football players from Tacloban featured in the short film, said that he had almost lost all desire to play football after Yolanda destroyed their homes.
“Pagdating ng Yolanda, nawalan na ko ng gana, wala na ko maisip kung maglalaro pa ko, (after Yolanda, I lost the desire, I don’t know if I will play again),” Regis said in an interview during the launch of the short film.
“Parang nasira din yung pangarap ko mag-football, (It’s like my dreams to play football was also destroyed),” he said.
But when he came to Manila, he was given an opportunity to play again and he found hope again he said.
Now in Tacloban, he and some of his younger neighbors make do with makeshift fields to play football.
“Hindi parin siya maayos, pinapagtiyagaan namin basta makapaglaro kami, kahit mataas yung damo, makapaglaro lang, matanggal lang yung stress at problema (It’s not a proper field, we make do with it just so we can play, even if the grass is tall as long as we can play and forget our stress and problems),” Regis said.
He said that he has been teaching his younger neighbors since they would come to him after school.
“Pinapayuhan ko rin sila kung paano ba yung mabuting buhay. Masmasarap kasi sabay yung football tsaka pagaaral dahil hindi sila sasama sa mga masamang bisyo (I also give them advice on how to live a good life. It feels better when football and advice are done together so that they wont stray toward bad vices),” Regis said.
About the short film, Regis said that he hoped people would continue to support the recovery efforts and not forget them.
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