Rebuilding from the ruins of Haiyan in Philippines

Three people clung to a tree, literally hanging on for their lives as 300kph winds tore at their clothes, pelting them with flying debris and rain. They watched helplessly as others who had no anchor were blown away by the winds.

That’s how John described the agonizing scene in front of his house as Typhoon Haiyan, reported to be the strongest storm ever to make landfall, ripped through the middle of the Philippines on the 8th of November 2013.

His real name is Hermogenes Cortez, Jr, but his friends call him John. “Like John the Baptist,” he said smiling, alluding to his deep Catholic faith.

Living with other family members in a cluster of houses in the middle of a rice paddy in Ormoc, John, his wife and their two children lost their home in the typhoon, but fortunately escaped injury. About 10 metres away, his two aunts weren’t so fortunate – their entire house collapsed with them inside, injuring both. Like many Filipinos, John has lived through numerous typhoons, but this is the first time one destroyed his home.

Knowing how important shelter is in the aftermath of a huge disaster, Caritas offers a quick, inexpensive and effective way to provide families with their own emergency shelter as they start to rebuild what the typhoon destroyed.

While families collect the salvageable pieces of their old homes, Caritas is showing them how to use these simple materials, along with tools, durable tarps and hardware provided by Caritas to build a temporary shelter that can be upgraded as families begin picking up the pieces of their lives.

The scene in John’s front yard is now quite different, as a carpenter hired by Caritas and volunteers come together to wood John salvaged from the storm to quickly build a new structure. As they work, a new form is raised up from the very wood that the typhoon dashed to the ground. While families begin to reconstruct, Caritas staff are on hand to teach families simple ways to make their house more durable against wind and rain.

Though intended as a temporary emergency shelter, John is looking to his shelter for longer-term use, joking that it’s “a permanent temporary shelter.” He thinks it will last a year or more as is, but plans to use it as a base for making upgrades when he gets money, strengthening it and building additions to provide his family with longer-term use.

The typhoon may have destroyed John’s house, but it strengthened his Catholic faith. This is a man who years ago built a small chapel in the complex of his extended families’ homes. Once a month a priest celebrates mass in their chapel and the other Sundays of the month they’re led by a lay minister – John.

Even in the face of so much destruction and despair, John comments, “God knows what happened in this country. The typhoon makes my faith stronger, because I’m still alive!”

Now that the emergency phase of the relief operations is concluding, Caritas is looking to the future and providing longer-term recovery support to build back their lives.

This phase will include working with families to rebuild dwellings which are comfortable and disaster resilient, using existing local skills in construction. In order to accommodate the variety of environments, damage of previous structure, and family needs, the communities will have a major say in the design of these structures.

In addition to rebuilding homes, we are also looking at reigniting the livelihoods of families, including farmers and fishermen. The work is about helping people return to their livelihood activities, and also helping to diversify their economic activity into new areas, so they are not dependent on one thing.

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