96 Permanent Homes for Haiyan Survivors

When typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines last November it left hundreds of thousands of people homeless in its wake. We’ve been keen to support the massive need for shelter after Haiyan and since February of this year we’ve been working with our Filipino partner, Gawad Kalinga (GK), to do just that.

We’ve demolished damaged houses so that reconstruction could start and helped build dozens of homes in the community of Pago before turning our focus to Palo.

In Palo we’ve been planning to help finish the interiors of 96 homes once GK completed their own work building the main structure of the houses. Our work finishing the homes was originally scheduled to start in May but main construction has been delayed for a variety of reasons and, as a result, work on the interiors has still not started.

At the same time our project engineer in Tacloban is approaching the end of his contract and we’ve become concerned that our planned work on the interior of these homes will now no longer be possible following his departure.

We will be continuing to support long-term recovery from Haiyan but over the coming months we’ll be starting to focus more on working with local partner organisations, rather than implementing projects through international specialists.

However, in Palo our plan was for our engineer to work directly with individual families. So, in this case, we do not feel that we can start the planned work without an overall local partner in place.

We take our commitments very seriously and so we wanted to send this report as soon as it became clear that we would not be able to proceed as planned. Donations already received will be used to cover the costs of our work to date and we will be closing down this project on GlobalGiving once this report has been sent.

Once again we apologise for any disappointment or inconvenience we have caused. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email Emma@IDVolunteers.org. I would be delighted to hear from you.

Melanieand Julianito have four sons. Their youngest, Lanzlee, is only 11 months old. When Haiyan struck, he was just 5 months old.

Before the storm, Melanie’s family wasn’t rich, but they got by. Her husband worked on a nearby farm and she stayed at home looking after the kids. But Haiyan changed everything.

The storm destroyed their home. Since then, the family has been living in a shack built from tin and wood without electricity or running water. The shack is only about four meters by five meters. With only sheets to separate the rooms, the family has very little privacy.

Worse, without electricity the family uses a kerosene lamp at night. The shack is poorly ventilated, and the fumes make the kids feel sick. Fire is a constant worry.

Happily, Melanie and her family will get a new home. Our partners, Gawad Kalinga (GK), will build the structure of a house for the family. However, GK won’t finish the inside of the building.

With your support, we’ll turn the house that GK builds into a home for Melanie and her family. It normally costs around $840 to turn a house into a home – but in exactly a month you can finish the family’s home for just $560.

That’s because on July 16^th, GlobalGiving is matching your gifts by 50%. 

If you have any questions about the matching day or this project, please don’t hesitate to email Emma@IDVolunteers.org. I would be delighted to hear from you.

Thanks so much, and we wish you all the best!