A Safer Home for Slum Dwellers in Metro Manila

Build Change broke ground on its first retrofit, the home of the winner of the home improvement lottery, Luningning Avelino! Both Build Change and Luningning were excited to start the project. Luningning said she is grateful that Build Change will help her to reinforce her home especially since she is aware that the foundation and columns of her house are weak. She believes that through Build Change’s technical assistance, she will be able to provide a safer dwelling for her family as well as for her tenants who are occupying rooms in her second floor; allowing them to protect themselves from the negative impact of natural disasters.

Prior to construction, our staff engineer trained Luningning on how to supervise and manage the construction process. Our engineer also facilitated training in disaster-resistant construction practices to five builders who will work on Luningning’s house. Doy, one of the trained builders, shared that the construction techniques he learned were very different from the traditional way that he builds houses; he believes that these techniques will surely help to strengthen the house and better resist the effects of typhoons and earthquakes. 

Apart from working on Luningning’s house, our team also completed technical appraisals of 30 more houses to evaluate their suitability for retrofit. These include the 10 homeowners who won second prize at the home improvement lottery, and the 20 homeowners who indicated an interest in taking out a loan to retrofit and made a deposit of Php1,000 each for Build Change to perform technical and financial appraisals of their home. We have completed the financial assessment for six homeowners who have suitable homes to retrofit, and we will choose two people to issue a loan in the succeeding weeks.   

In addition, Build Change continues to participate in barangay activities to further raise awareness about the importance of retrofitting. These include the annual fiesta where we crowned a “Miss Resilience” and the winner of “Galing ng Nanay Mo”, a pageant for the mothers of Pembo, as well as gave a “Resilience Award” to a family as part of Pembo’s barangay awards night. Our team also participated in Pembo’s annual parade, which featured hats and costumes from different parts of the Philippines which were made from recycled materials.

Build Change is excited to work with more homeowners in the community in helping them to retrofit their homes and eventually increase their community’s resilience: physically through safer homes; economically by protecting their small home businesses and therefore protecting their income; and socio-culturally by preventing gentrification and displacement and allowing Pembo to keep pace with the growth of its surrounding communities while preserving its culture and identity.