How a Negros Farmer Found Hope to Start Again After the Floods

In late 2025, Typhoon Tino (international name: Kalmaegi) brought torrential rains and devastating floods across parts of Negros Occidental, including the municipality of Moises Padilla.

Homes, farmlands, and livelihoods were submerged as floodwaters rose rapidly, prompting the declaration of a state of calamity in the province and leaving many families struggling to recover. As communities began rebuilding, the looming threat of Typhoon Uwan (Fung-Wong) raised fears of further rainfall and flooding, adding to the uncertainty faced by already disaster-affected households.

For 60-year-old Marilou Andres, farming has never been just a source of income. It is the life she has always known, the legacy passed down by her parents, and the foundation on which she and her husband raised their family.

Growing up in the farming community of Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental, Marilou learned at an early age that every grain of rice comes from patience, hard work, and faith. 

She spent her childhood helping in the fields, watching her parents till the soil, plant rice, and wait through the seasons for harvest. Those lessons became her way of life. When she eventually had children of her own, she taught them the same values, believing that farming was not only about producing food but also about perseverance, responsibility, and gratitude.

Their family owns only a small rice field and a modest vegetable garden where they grow organic vegetables for their own consumption. They have never expected a life of abundance. Their dream has always been simple: to have enough food on the table and enough income to send their children to school.

Life has never been easy.

Farm work is seasonal, and opportunities are limited. On the days Marilou is hired to work, she earns only around ₱250 a day, and even then, work is available only about three days a week. Her husband does whatever he can to supplement their income, repairing shoes and umbrellas for neighbors, earning only ₱15 to ₱20 for each repair. Every peso they earn is carefully budgeted. They often set aside their own needs so they can provide for their children’s education, hoping that the next generation will have opportunities they never had.

Despite their hardships, Marilou never complained. She believed that as long as they could cultivate their land and harvest rice, they would always have something to eat.

Then Typhoon Tino arrived.

What began as heavy rains quickly turned into a disaster that forever changed their lives.

The floodwaters rose rapidly, swallowing fields that had once been filled with vibrant green rice plants. The crop they had patiently nurtured for months, nearly ready for harvest, disappeared beneath muddy water within hours.

“It hurts so much,” Marilou said quietly. “I cannot fully describe the sadness in my heart.”

 Photo taken by: Vincent Mallillin

The small savings they had worked so hard to accumulate for their son’s education suddenly had to be spent on basic necessities. Instead of paying school expenses, they were forced to buy kilos of rice because the very rice they depended on had been washed away.

Their only source of food and livelihood was gone. Seeing the destruction with her own eyes was almost unbearable.

“Our rice was almost ready to harvest,” she recalled. “When I saw it floating in the flood, I cried so hard. I felt like everything we had worked for had disappeared.” As the floodwaters continued to rise, fear replaced hope.

There were no nearby neighbors to ask for help. Houses in their community are separated by vast rice fields, and everyone was struggling to survive the disaster themselves.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said. “I simply prayed, ‘Jesus, I don’t know what else to say. I leave everything to You.’”

The terrifying images remain vivid in her memory.

“I witnessed houses being carried away by the current,” she remembered. “The water almost rose above my husband’s head. Everywhere I looked, the green fields had disappeared. All I could see was brown water carrying trees, wood, and everything else in its path.”

Even today, the trauma has not completely faded.

“Sometimes, when I try to sleep at night, I can still hear the sound of the rushing floodwaters and the cries of people during that terrible day.”

For Marilou, losing the harvest was about much more than losing income.

“That field is where my children grew up,” she said. “It may only be a small piece of land, but it carries so many memories. It fed us for years. It helped us survive. Watching it disappear was one of the hardest moments of my life.” Like many affected families, Marilou tried to seek assistance, but with thousands of households devastated by the typhoon, support could not immediately reach everyone. She understood that many others were also suffering.

Still, she never allowed herself to lose faith.

“I believed that the Lord would not abandon us,” she said. “When I thought about who could help us, only God came to my mind. I trusted that He would make a way.”

That prayer was answered through the generosity of people who chose to stand alongside farming communities during their recovery.

Through World Vision’s farming livelihood recovery initiative, Marilou’s family received farming livelihood kits containing essential tools to help them prepare their land, plant again, and begin rebuilding what the flood had destroyed.

For many people, the tools may seem ordinary. For Marilou, they represent something much greater.

“The farming tools we received are very important to us,” she said with gratitude. “They will help us restart our livelihood and cultivate our land again. They give us hope that we can provide for our family once more.”

Receiving assistance reminded her that even after losing so much, she and her family had not been forgotten.

“Among the many families affected by the typhoon, we were blessed to receive help,” she shared. “I am deeply thankful to World Vision. Even when your work here is finished, you will always remain in our hearts because you stood with us during one of the hardest moments of our lives.”

She also believes that every blessing they have received ultimately comes from God.

“I lift all these blessings back to the Lord. He never abandoned us.” Today, Marilou walks through her fields with renewed determination. The scars left by Typhoon Tino remain visible, and the memories of that devastating flood may never completely disappear. Yet every time she plants a seed, she chooses hope over despair.

World Vision, in partnership with Citi Foundation, distributed farming livelihood kits to 550 typhoon-affected families in Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental

For Marilou, farming is more than growing rice. It is preserving a way of life, honoring generations of hard work, and ensuring that her family can move forward despite everything they have endured. 

Her story is one of countless families whose lives were changed by disaster, but it is also a story of resilience. It is a reminder that recovery begins not only with seeds and farming tools, but with compassion, faith, and the people who choose to walk alongside communities as they rebuild.

As green slowly returns to the fields of Moises Padilla, so does hope. And for Marilou Andres, every new harvest will stand as a testament that even after the strongest storms, life can grow again.