Introduction

I have long admired individuals who engage in entrepreneurial activities, and it always prompts me to ask them how they started. During one of our family members’ birthday celebrations, we went to visit the San Juan by the Bay Floating Restaurant for a gathering. It was then that I discovered initial information about their ecotourism activity and that this was a post-Haiyan livelihood. This first visit was followed by several more as I gathered data through interviews from the members of the San Juan Women's Association.

The incredible impact of super typhoon Haiyan caught the attention of the world, and it is common knowledge that it brought massive damage to Eastern Visayas (EV). Based on the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council report (NDRRMC 2013), there were 3,424,593 families and a total of 16,078,181 individuals, 12,139 barangays, and 44 provinces affected by super typhoon Haiyan (NDRRMC 2013, 2). In terms of the damages brought on dwellings, there were 550,928 totally damaged and 589,404 partially damaged houses, or a total of 1,140,332 dwellings (NDRRMC 2013, 4). Damages to infrastructure (roads, bridges, ports, water systems, power supply, school buildings, health facilities, drainage systems, telecommunications, government buildings, and so on) were estimated at PHP9,584,596,305.69 (NDRRMC 2013, 6), while those of the social services sector (education, health, and housing) amounted to PHP42,981,516,687.33 (NDRRMC 2013, 7). Lastly, in the production sector (agriculture, fisheries, mining and quarrying, trade and services, and tourism), the damages were estimated at PHP24,431,165,763.52 (NDRRMC 2013, 8). As for loss of life, there were 6,300 deaths attributed to drowning from the typhoon storm surge and flooding; 93.68% of which, or 5,902 were from EV. There were 1,062 missing persons, 94.63% or 1,005 of whom were from EV, and 28,688 were injured, 91.28% or 26,186 from EV (NDRRMC 2013, 3). The number of casualties and missing and injured individuals shows the enormity of how EV suffered from super typhoon Haiyan.

Indeed, damages to life, personal and real estate properties, and infrastructures, as well as the production and social services sector were tremendous. Super typhoon Haiyan delivered an external shock to households that distorted their normal ways of life; earnings from livelihoods either in farming or fishing were affected and in small and medium businesses (in goods and services, labor in the construction sector, etc.)