A Catholic diocese in the Philippines is focusing on vulnerable households in its programs for communities affected by a series of typhoons that hit the country last year.
“We are prioritizing poor households, especially those with elderly people, people with disabilities, and single-headed households,” said Bishop Manolo de los Santos of Virac.
The prelate said the repair and construction of damaged churches and other church facilities have been put on hold.
“We will first construct houses for the poor before repairing damaged church structures,” said Bishop Delos Santos.
The diocese has started distributing livelihood assistance to people, including farm inputs, cash vouchers for small and medium enterprises, and motorized and non-motorized boats.
The province of Catanduanes was still recovering from the impact of typhoon Molave when super typhoon Goni hit the area in November.
Father Renato dela Rosa, social action director of the Diocese of Virac, led the distribution of “household starter kits” on February 2 as part of the diocese’s humanitarian response.
The priest said the diocese has already delivered about US$2.149 worth of emergency relief aid and other assistance to communities in 27 parishes and eight mission areas.
“We are now in the early recovery phase of our humanitarian response. In this stage, we are introducing projects that will really help the people get back on their feet,” he said.
One of the main initiatives of the diocese is the construction of “disaster-resilient permanent houses” for at least 300 families displaced by super typhoon Goni in November.
The diocese has already received about US$500,000 for the shelter project from Caritas Philippines and Caritas Internationalis.
“We are hoping that we will find more fundings for the shelter program because there are still a lot of families who need help in rebuilding permanent houses,” said the priest.
Super typhoon Goni, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone last year, made landfall on November 1 in Catanduanes province killing at least 24 people and displacing more than 130,000 others.
The typhoon affected 1.9 million people in eight of the country’s 17 regions, leaving an estimated 845,000 people in need of assistance.
Nearly 140,000 houses have been damaged with more than 60 percent of the destruction recorded in the provinces of Catanduanes and Albay.
The Philippine Red Cross reported that 90 percent of the houses on Catanduanes island have been totally and partially damaged forcing many families to stay in emergency shelters.
Super typhoon Goni also caused significant damage to health facilities, schools, and essential services. Damage to infrastructure reached US$234 million.
