Build a Home Project
A Project by Volunteer for the Visayans
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Funds Raised:
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Through our ongoing partnership with Volunteer for the Visayans, we’re aiming to build a home for a family of eight in the Philippines in April 2019. With two sons and four daughters, the family is in need of a new home on their own property to secure a stable future for their children. The father is a farm laborer, planting and harvesting rice seasonally in the rice fields that surround their village. The mother is a housewife, but works hard to pick up side jobs cleaning houses, doing laundry, or working as a farm laborer whenever she can.
Learn more about their story below, or click on the donate button to support their build a home project!
The Family’s Story
Perseverance in the Face of Devastation
After Typhoon Haiyan hit in 2013, the family’s home was completely destroyed, leaving them with nothing more than fire wood to rebuild their lives. They were thankful to have survived the wrath of the worst storm in recorded history, so despite the devastation, they were driven to survive the aftermath and build a new life for their family.
Their youngest, twin daughters, were just 2 months old at the time, leaving them with an urgent need for formula. Their mother was barely able to drink and eat enough daily, let alone produce milk for the twins. The GoAbroad Foundation’s relief efforts supplied the family with formula and minimal groceries as frequently as we were able to visit their village, helping them to survive some of the most trying times of their lives. For the first few weeks after the typhoon, the family made a makeshift shelter in our partner’s community center, which had lost its roof to the 300 kph winds.
Rebuilding Stability
Finally in early 2014 the family was able to gather enough materials to build a small home of bamboo and coconut lumber, but they knew it was only a temporary fix to their homelessness.
They became the priority family for the GoAbroad Foundation’s first shelter project, which aimed to build a home for two families in the community as quickly as possible that could last them at least 5 years. Since they lacked enough land at the time to construct a home on, a generous neighbor offered to allow them to build on their property. Before the twins’ first birthday, they were moved in to their new home, finally safe and sound after surviving Typhoon Haiyan.
Fast forward to 2019 and their home has now reached its 5th year, and the generous neighbor is now ready to utilize the property where there home sits. The family has continued to be a staple of our programs in their community, from their two daughters being sponsoring through VFV’s child sponsorship program to receiving monthly rice subsidies and attending our weekend feedings. We are dedicated to building them their forever home, so they can continue to support their children’s bright futures.