Together We Stand

[ 28 ] earthquake devastated the islands of Cebu and Bohol, destroying homes, schools and centuries-old churches. In November, super-typhoon Haiyan crushed much of the city of Tacloban and the surrounding region. Estimates of the dead ran into the thousands. A visiting ambassador compared the city to Hiroshima. The three successive catastrophes, each of a different calibre and nature, rocked the country and challenged the capabilities of its government. One constant was the active participation of the Philippine private sector in galvaniz- ing resources and helping rebuild a stricken country. PDRF was at the centre of the action. It became a major partner of the newly-created Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR). OPARR divided the areas affected by Haiyan into 26 zones, with various companies and PDRF assuming respon- sibility for the rehabilitation effort in each zone. Earlier, PDRF had created five clusters to help restore the damaged areas to normalcy — Education, Livelihood, Shelter, Environment, and water, infrastructure, sanitation and health (WISH). A sixth cluster, Disaster Preparedness, was set up with an eye to the future, with everyone realizing that the Philippines is a disaster-prone country, number two or three on most lists. Each cluster was headed by a seasoned corporate executive with various companies joining one grouping or the other. Because of its credibility as an action-oriented organi- zation led by some of the top chief executive officers in the country, PDRF received a great deal of support from both domestic and overseas donors including the sizeable Filipino diaspora community. A 14-year-old American from New Jersey raised money from his classmates to rebuild the Philippines, brick by brick with each brick costing a quarter. A high school teacher from Colorado spoke out about the super-typhoon’s destruction and asked for donations. Help.Ph, a text-based donation mechanism, was launched by another PDRF member, Smart Communications, and raised millions of pesos. Concerts were staged with artists perform- ing for free. Filipinos along with ordinary people from around the world rallied to aid the Philippines. In the Education cluster, PDRF reconstructed dozens of classrooms and at the request of the Department of Education, fed 27,000 hungry schoolchildren in 607 schools for one month. In the Livelihood cluster, it worked with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on a programme to restart businesses that had been lost during Haiyan. The DTI chose the recipients most likely to succeed and trained them while PDRF provided the equipment to get their businesses going again. Dressmakers were given sewing machines. Food stall owners were given stoves and cooking utensils to put up sidewalk eateries. PDRF gave motorized boats to fishermen who had lost theirs, to enable them to earn a living again. Small stores, called ‘sari-saris’, that had been swept away by the typhoon were connected to a wholesale grocery distri- bution group that provided them with goods to sell with no cash up front and generous repayment terms. Everywhere, PDRF spread hope and opportunity. The Shelter cluster built transitional housing for typhoon victims, getting them out of shelters and bunkhouses. In a United States Agency for International Development- funded project, PDRF is constructing a village outside of Tacloban where typhoon victims can live. The plan features a community-owned transportation network to bring people to and from their places of work. The programme also has a livelihood and skills training component. In Zamboanga, PDRF partnered with Gawad Kalinga, a housing advocate, to build permanent houses for refugees from the fighting. In the WISH cluster, the organization worked with UNDP to pay Tacloban residents to clear debris from city streets. It rebuilt health and birthing centres. Telemedicine gives access to expert medical diagnosis to people who may have never before seen a doctor Images: PDRF T ogether W e S tand