Volunteering After the 6.9 Magnitude Earthquake

Hello, my dear hivers!

To those who don’t know, I am from Northern Cebu. Way back last September 30,2025 we experienced a 6.9 magnitude earthquake.

I’m currently taking a BS Psychology in college and as part of taking an action, our dean messages us in our group chat informing us that our department will conduct a child friendly space activity. She asked who among the students were to volunteer.This activity aims to help children recover from the trauma caused by the earthquake we experienced.

Basically, there were two locations or groups. Which is San Remegio and Daanbantayan. I initially preferred San Remegio since it’s closer to my place, but Daanbantayan needed more volunteers because not much of the students choose to go there as it’s quite far. At first, I asked my nearby friends if you could go together, but during this time they were hesitant to join because the interval of aftershocks are not so much apart and they felt nervous.

Two weeks later. My friend who lived nearby messaged me asking if I was free and wanted to join them. This friend of mine already mentioned that one of our friend was also going, so if I agreed, the three of us could go there. Since I really wanted to volunteer, I immediately said yes. We planned to be ready before 7am so that we could arrived on time as the call time was 8:30 am. The call time was scheduled this time because our head facilitator still needed to orient us about the do’s during the activity. We would only focus on the do’s this time since we had already attended the full orientation via google meet with our dean.

Now, when the day came. My friend Lavester arrived at our place as early as 7:10 am. However, to my part I wasn’t ready yet since I still needed to go to the other house to changed. He only replied , it was okay because our plan was to leave at 7:30am and I still have 20 minutes left. Besides, our other friend Johan hadn’t arrived yet.It only took me 10 minutes to get ready, but Johan still hadn’t shown up or replied to our messages. So we waited until 8:00am when he finally replied , saying he was on his way. This friend of ours really follows Filipino time. We just laughed and joked with him when he arrived asking why he was late.

When all three of us were finally together, we decided to wait for a bus. Though several buses passed by, but none had the signage we were for. We decided to just ride a V-hire , hoping the fare wouldn’t cost too much. We asked the driver if he could give us a discount since we didn’t have much money. Thankfully, he said yes and we the entered the V-hire feeling relieved and grateful. It’s really rare to meet kind V-hire drivers like him, so we considered it a lucky day.

By the way , here’s a glimpse of the view during our trip. I sat in the front seat, which was perfect because I wanted to capture the road and it also helped me avoid feeling dizzy during the trip . The trip from Ilihan to Daanbantayan took about an hour. During the trip, I didn’t saw any major damages but I there were cracks. Also I saw some tents where people to stayed to feel safer during the aftershocks.

After about an hour, the driver dropped us off somewhere in Daanbantayan near the tricycle area. Telling us he couldn’t go futher inside and dropped us to the place were telling him. We then rode a tricycle and luckily it only cost 20 pesos as our fare.

In less than 5 minutes we finally arrived at Daanbantayan National High School where our head facilitator mentioned we would meet.

That is all for today’s blog, my dear hivers!