Update: View our report on Super Typhoon Yolanda here.
It has been almost a year ago since Super Typhoon Haiyan, known as Typhoon Yolanda locally, left its trail of destruction in the Philippines. Tacloban City was one of the cities that directly felt the impact of the typhoon, leaving about 95% of the city in ruins and displacing approximately 12,000 households.
Give2Asia partnered with various organizations in order to develop the necessary response needed in order to facilitate community rebuilding in the different disaster-stricken areas.
This September, Alexie Mercado, Give2Asia’s Field Advisor in the Philippines, went to Tacloban and Guian wherein Give2Asia helped to support the rebuilding of different schools. This was made possible through our individual donor, Mona Lisa Yuchengco, as well as partnerships with Philippine International Aid and Seagate Technology, to the PhilAm Foundation.
To celebrate the re-opening and turnover of the one-storey, two-classroom building, there was a program created by the students and faculty at San Jose Central School in Tacloban City. There were prayers and songs performed by the students themselves.
However, it was the hand-written thank-you notes of the students that really made an impact. “It was hard to hold back tears after reading the note and watching the heartfelt performances of the children,” Alexie said.
Give2Asia emphasizes on funding long-term recovery projects and collaborating at the grassroots level. One year after the disaster, the people of Tacloban and Guian are still in the process of regaining what they lost. However, it is uplifting to see projects like this come to fruition and be instruments to people slowly rebuilding their lives after a disaster.