PALO, Leyte—The Archdiocese of Palo, through the Caritas Program, has been helping rebuild the lives of the survivors of the Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) in this municipality.
Through the Recovery Assistance to Vulnerable Communities Affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines (REACH) program, the beneficiaries were provided with shelter, sanitation and hygiene promotion, farming, livelihood and income-generating projects in the past three years since 2014.
The program’s Relief and Rehabilitation Unit, created by Archbishop John F. Du of Archdiocese of Palo, has initiated, implemented, monitored and coordinated the participation of the church for the recovery and rehabilitation of the communities in the archdiocese that were affected by the supertyphoon.
According to Caritas Palo, it has covered 20 barangays in nine municipalities, which were provided with shelter, livelihood, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), ecosystem rehabilitation and community managed disaster-risk reduction (CMDRR) programs.
Permanent shelters
ON March 4 the church-based humanitarian organization, has built and handed over 15 permanent houses for families in Barangay Dacay, Dulag, Leyte.
The handover ceremony was attended by the beneficiaries and the Caritas Palo staff led by its REACH Program Manager Ronald B. Abao, Barangay Council Leader Rosario Alicando, parish priest Fr. Edwin Pontejos of Saint Joseph Parish, San Jose, Dulag and Dulag Mayor Mildred Joy Que.
“We were not expecting that we will be given this kind of house. Thanks to Caritas Palo. My family can live now in a decent house,” a beneficiary said.
On February 11 Caritas also handed over 15 permanent houses to affected families in Barangay Canmogsay, Tolosa, Leyte.
In its three year of recovery and rehabilitation program, the church-based organization has built 580 permanent houses in 19 barangays from eight municipalities within the archdiocese. Forty-two permanent houses were also built by Caritas, which fund came from other faith groups.
According to Abao, Caritas Palo began working in the area after Yolanda struck as a humanitarian arm of the archdiocese of Palo for the recovery and rehabilitation of the affected communities.
Major partners of Caritas Palo are Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines National Secretariat for Social Action/Caritas Philippines and Caritas Internationalis. These two major partners provided funds, while Caritas Palo implemented the programs.
Empowering the barangays
Through its CMDRR, Caritas helped empower the barangays by helping them assess their vulnerabilities and analyze the support they need for their rehabilitation.
Based on the assessment, the communities chose their livelihood programs, such as organic farming with technical coaching and provision of seeds and equipment. The barangays also choose other interventions, such as ecosystem rehabilitation, shelter construction, livelihood-recovery and sanitation and hygiene.
They constructed resilient shelters in high-risk communities and ecosystem rehabilitation, such as mangrove plantation and tree-planting program.
Other facilities
Besides houses, Caritas built postharvest facilities, such as rice mill, solar dryer and seedbank; distributed farming tools and machinery, and built a water pipe system with 17 tap stands and a school-based water facility in Barangay Dacay.
Caritas bazaar
Caritas Palo held a Caritas Bazaar, or Multi-Sectoral Products Trade Fair, that provided the community sell their agricultural and processed food products to augment their daily needs. It was held on February 25, 26 and February 28 to March 1 at Santo Niño Parish grounds in Tacloban, Leyte.
The communities trained their eyes on alternative livelihood since their traditional sources of livelihood, the coconut trees, were destroyed by the typhoon. They began to produce other sustainable resources, such as vegetables.
From planting camote, they also learned to produce value-added camote chips as part of their technical training. They promote organic farming to encourage environment-friendly farming for sustainable agriculture and as part of climate change and mitigation.