Yolanda Relief and Rehabilitation Program
“We are not just building homes…we are building communities”
The Yolanda Relief and Rehabilitation Program (YORREP) implemented by the Order of Malta Philippines with Malteser International, is a highly integrated and multi-approach process linking relief, rehabilitation and development.
It involves multi-level collaboration and cooperation with stakeholders. There is also community involvement and active participation of beneficiaries in activities such as home visits and community assembly, in the traditional bayanihan spirit of helping each other.
The program is geared towards assisting the most marginalized sectors – the elderly, the sick, the disabled, single parents, lactating mothers, the unemployed, as well as those who earn less than minimum wage.
The youth are encouraged to learn carpentry skills, to participate in future disaster preparedness and community planning for risk reduction activities. In Barangays San Antonio and Amandayehan, Basey, our first “Youth First-Aid Disaster Preparedness & Risk Reduction Training” took place last March 23 – 25, 2015 attended by 40 participants which included local barangay officials. Its focus is to involve the youth in Disaster Preparedness and Community Planning. This program which includes emergency rescue and first aid will be replicated in other communities around the nation.
The youth are also involved in helping their elders, specially in shelter building which help strengthen values formation. Through trainings, community members’ skills and capacities are built up to learn Build Back Better Principles. Knowledge transfer and consultation is done to equip communities with basic engineering techniques to enable them to build more resilient homes and continue the application of inclusive shelter designs learned in our
program. Aside from this, progressive core shelters and latrines are identified by their respective GPS coordinates for exact identification of shelter location.
YORREP has also completed the repairs and rehabilitation of the community water system and storage tank in Bantayan Island, the building of the school canteen and the handwashing facility at the Okoy Elementary School. Agricultural seminars have also been conducted in Basey, Samar for those interested in improved yield of vegetable farms and nursery development.
Our YORREP team is composed of 30 members in 3 locations – Manila, Samar, and Bantayan Island, all are working together to build and accomplish this challenging project.
(MCH)
- A core shelter in Basey, Samar.
- The youth shelter was blessed during the Grand Master’s visit last March 5 by Most Rev. Isabelo, Abarquez, DD, Bishop of Calbayog.
