Fleeing gunfire and leaving everything behind, a sweeter future begins for this family

Awoken by the sound of gunshots father of four, Basit, fled with his family early one morning. Barely escaping the many stray bullets, the family came to Marawi City with nothing. World Vision’s livelihood assistance plan gave the family hope and opportunity to begin to build their future.

In his own words, Basit shares his story,

"I am Basit, 37 years old and now live in Cotabato City.

My wife and I have four children.

I used to be from Timako. My parents live there. We lived there since childhood.

My father and I used to catch crabs.

Your income from this is not much and it depends on your catch.

Sometimes it’s a failure and you don’t catch anything.

That used to be our livelihood."

"The reason we moved to this area is because of a clan.

We were caught in the middle of it. (deadly violence)

We woke early one morning to the sound of gunshots.

I took my family away from there. Even as we were riding a boat, we could still hear gunshots.

While we were running, I saw my wife carrying one of our children. I thought she was hit by a bullet, but she just fell to the ground.

I didn't think we would not make it because of the number of stray bullets.

Some people didn’t seem to care if there were civilians who might get hit.

I saw my children covered in mud. They were holding onto a palm tree.

When we reached a bridge, I saw my father carrying nothing.

Sadly, our house was also robbed."

*Specific locations removed, images of children witheld for child protection

"When we moved here to this area, we had a hard time because, of course, we needed to find a place to temporarily stay.

Whoever had the heart, let us stay with them.

Fortunately, a friend let us stay in one of their houses, which looked like a ghost house at first. It looked infested with snakes. Because we had nowhere else to stay, we couldn’t be picky. So, we cleaned it and my family, my sibling’s family and our father all stayed in one house.

It was very difficult for us to recover that time. My wife and I, we would look for any work to earn. Two of our children were still small.

Our life was a hand-to-mouth existence.

We needed to survive on daily basis.

It was painful to see your children waiting for you coming home and you couldn’t give them anything."

"Unexpectedly, a blessing came to us from World Vision.

We were given livelihood assistance.

I used it to start a small business of “halo-halo” (mixed fruit with shaved ice).

Gradually, I was able to meet our needs as well as that of my children (for schooling).

Somehow, I am able to provide now for my family.

Then I built a small canteen.

My “halo-halo” was a success. I even added more another business that also helps us.

So, this is now the only thing that my wife and I have for work.

Because of the livelihood support our life now has improved."

In places like Marawi City, Philippines, your Raw Hope donations help children and families living in very complex situations survive, recover and build a future.