Thankfully, throughout the Philippines, many lives were spared thanks to better national disaster planning and preparedness and to the fact that this typhoon was less severe than last year’s. However, while there was far less loss of life, the physical destruction was still 600 km in width. Many families lost their homes, possessions, and livelihoods. The agricultural projects that World Renew started following last year’s Typhoon Haiyan were also wiped out. World Renew is responding with support from the Canadian government.
Following Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, World Renew set up three temporary offices in the Philippines from which to carry out its three-year typhoon response. Once it became known that a 2014 typhoon was on its way, World Renew staff began to prepare. People were first evacuated to shelters, including to the houses constructed by World Renew. After the typhoon, needs assessment staff visited affected communities to assess the damages and determine how best to response. With this information, World Renew planned an immediate response with food assistance, shelter and emergency supplies.
World Renew is very grateful to report that in mid-December it was awarded CDN $250,000 from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) to carry out this response.
With this funding in place, World Renew is partnering and ZOA (who were already working in the area impacted by this typhoon) and working with the Christian Reformed Church of the Philippines (CRCP) to provide food assistance, temporary shelter, seeds, bedding and hygiene items; according to the needs of the six municipalities in the Leyte and Samar islands. In total, 4,122 will be assisted with one or a combination of these responses.
“While we grieve for those who lost their lives in this Typhoon, we thank God that there was minimal loss of life and that World Renew houses were used as evacuation centres to protect people from the onslaught of Hagupit” explains Grace Wiebe, World Renew Senior Project manager. “We are also grateful to the International Humanitarian Assistance Directorate of DFATD for providing this funding to World Renew to enable World Renew staff and our partners to implement a multi-sectoral response to those affected by Typhoon Hagupit.”
World Renew and ZOA are providing temporary shelter kits to those living in the no-build zone of the coastal Barangays or villages. 2,500 additional households are receiving a tarp for protection.
Families in coastal barangays are receiving full food baskets, and families in inland barangays are receiving partial food baskets. 97 households whose agricultural efforts were wiped out will receive seed to restart agriculture that was destroyed in Typhoon Haiyan and again with Typhoon Hagupit. Blankets, mattresses and hygiene kits are also being provided to 1,076 households.
