A home for the holidays

MANILA, Philippines - With typhoons “Ondoy,” “Pepeng,” and “Santi” hitting so close to the holidays, many displaced families will be spending their Christmas in cramped evacuation centers. In response to their needs, Habitat for Humanity Philippines (HFHP) has prepared a three-part plan for recovery.

Noting the typhoon victims’ immediate needs, HFHP constructed 134 sanitation facilities in evacuation centers in Metro Manila and provinces in Luzon. To help rebuild their homes, HFHP also raised funds to provide home repair kits which will help at least 10,000 families repair their houses so that they can return to them. Each kit includes basic needs such as roofing materials, lumber, plywood sheeting, nails, and tools.

In Barangay Malanday in Marikina, one of the hardest hit areas, some 300 families have already received the repair kits and have rebuilt their homes. Barangay captain Joseph Briones says, “Hindi mo alam, sa sitwasyon na yun, kung pano ka mag-uumpisa ng rehabilitation (You wouldn’t know, in that situation, how to start rehabilitation).” He and the residents of Barangay Malanday are grateful for the much-needed assistance HFHP has extended to their community.

Aside from the kits, HFHP also has some long-term plans, including transitional houses to stay in while homes are being rebuilt and permanent relocation for some communities.

Families relocated from the banks of Pasig River also have a reason to celebrate – with “Kapit Bisig sa Ilog Pasig” they have a home for the holidays.

All great civilizations emerge near rivers. It is the water that sustains and nurtures a community. The Pasig River once served that purpose for the residents of Metro Manila, winding 26 kilometers from Manila Bay in the west to Laguna de Bay in the east, connecting the two main ports. The Pasig River, in its glory days, was an important transportation route, a choice location for homes and businesses of the affluent, and ultimately the lifeline pulsing through the city.

However, along with the urbanization of the metropolis, Pasig River began to deteriorate. When the city centers moved inland, businesses and wealthy residents followed suit. Abandoned, informal settlers found their way to the riverbanks and took shelter there. Soon, Pasig River became what we know it to be today – the sewer of the city, polluted with garbage, causing major flooding during the rainy season.

Many programs have been started in the past that attempted to clean the Pasig River, but just as many have failed due to lack of follow-up activities to make the projects sustainable. It was the recent onslaught of severe typhoons and floods that highlighted the urgency of attending to the problems of the city, including those involving the Pasig River.

When the floods destroyed many homes, the families living along the river were left without shelter. It became imperative to relocate them, not only to give them a new place to live, but also to enable the cleaning of the river, which would restore it to its former state as well as lessen the occurrence of flooding in the area.

“Kapit-Bisig sa Ilog Pasig,” a seven-year project, is a holistic answer to address potential disasters, primarily among the slum areas along the Pasig River. The program is a multi-sectoral intervention which not only offers housing but also community building and sustainable development, benefiting those being resettled as well as the environment, and in effect, the whole metropolis. It aims to transform the river into a “zero toxic and clean river zone.”

Resettlement is the first step to the cleaning of the river, as studies show that household waste thrown into the river by informal settlers accounts for 60 percent of pollutants. With its main thrust in building houses, HFHP will head the construction of the houses at a relocation site in Calauan, Laguna in a project dubbed “BayaniJuan sa Calauan.” The community will have its own school and livelihood facilities. The Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life will also help by providing values education. The resettlement project will initially benefit some 4,000 families.

Coming to the aid of HFHP in building the houses is Bosch, a leading manufacturer of power tools. The company has been a supporter of HFHP for ten years and has provided them with much needed support.

“The power tools that Bosch donates to Habitat for Humanity brings down the cost of a Habitat house, making it affordable yet durable,” said HFHP chair Margie Moran Floirendo. “The tools make construction efficient, minimizing labor cost and thereby maximizing output.”

An important aspect of Habitat for Humanity is volunteerism. “Bosch power tools are volunteer-friendly,” says Floirendo. Habitat beneficiaries themselves also help in building the houses. Aside from defraying costs, this allows them to actually participate in building their home, and gives them a sense of dignity and pride in their own house.

To provide aid beyond housing, HFHP will work with various organizations supporting the Kapit Bisig initiative. These represent a wide range of groups – from NGOs to the national government to the private sector – all concerned with rehabilitating the river. HFHP’s partners include the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the National Housing Authority, local government units, ABS-CBN Foundation, Ayala Land, Manila Water, among others.

Kapit Bisig sa Ilog Pasig promises to restore the Pasig River to its former glory – and with it, perhaps the great civilization that has sprung from it, giving everyone hope for the coming year.

Because of the joint efforts of so many concerned sectors, the families affected by the recent disasters can truly say, “I’ll be home for Christmas.”