Adopt 10000 Haiyan-hit Farmer-Fisher-Families

THANK YOU for your support!

Your donations have enabled us jumpstart the livelihood of Haiyan-affected farming and fishing communities.   Briefly, our assistance focused on the following:  

• Reviving and rebuilding retail trade or small community stores in Leyte province.  In local parlance, we refer to there as sari-sari stores, which are the common livelihood of the women in the farming and fishing communities in Haiyan-devastated areas.   We revived the women’s retail trade by repairing their stores, provision of small inventory small capital and training on store management.  As an added benefit, the project provided temporary jobs to local workers in the reconstruction of stores.

• Rehabilitation of the mangrove cover of Bantayan Island in Northern Cebu through establishment of mangrove reforestation sites. Mangrove ecosystems provide livelihoods, and coastal protection. Through this effort,we also aim to increase the participation of local communities in the conservation of coastal environment.

To date, your support has resulted in:

• Repair and revival of 44 sari-sari store owners benefitting 44 households directly. These stores have helped make basic goods more accessible to the immediate communities in 7 barangays in Palo, Leyte Province.

In partnership with Hapinoy, women store owners were trained on basic business recordkeeping. They also received loans from our partner microfinance institutions of P8,000 each to buy their initial stocks. Hapinoy is PBSP’s partner organization committed to “developing highly-skilled and empowered micro entrepreneurs who are running sari-sari stores so they could build a sustainable business and bring more impact at the community level.”

• Ongoing rehabilitation of 34.6 hectares of mangrove areas in Bantayan Island, Cebu

Bantayan Island lost 27% of its mangrove biomass due to Haiyan. The mangrove areas are now threatened as well as livelihoods of fishing communities and its coastal protection against natural disasters. In partnership with the Zoological Society of London, we are using science-based methods to rehabilitate the mangrove sites. We are also empowering communities to protect the remaining mangrove forests.

What’s next on our plate?

• Repair and enhancement of the sari-sari stores
• More trainings on cash flow and risk management, and analyzing store financial data
• Hand holding store owners as they practice correct record keeping and store management
• Completion of biodiversity survey
• Planting of appropriate species of 346,000 mangrove seedlings
• Maintenance of the reforestation area by community based organizations
• Regular checking for plant disease and inventory to determine the survival rate

The Mayor of one of our assisted municipality said: “Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) left my constituents and others in Visayas roofless and homeless but never hopeless because of the immediate support shown by organizations like PBSP.”

PBSP could have not done it without your support through Global Giving!

• Project Update with photos (DOCX)