COUPLE Jacob and Potenciana Regalado could only say the words “thank you” to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and American Red Cross after they received their new house on Saturday, August 18 in Barangay Imelda of Mac Arthur town in Leyte.
The Regalado family is just one of the 48 families that benefitted the Yolanda housing project of PRC and its American counterpart in their new relocation site after Super Typhoon Yolanda destroyed their houses on Nov. 8, 2013.
“We came here to honor you. We are here to strengthen you so that you will also strengthen each other,” said Sen. Richard Gordon, PRC chairman, in a speech during the formal turnover and inauguration ceremony of the Villa Imelda Relocation Project.
Gordon, along with American Red Cross Country Representative Shir Shah Ayobi, other Red Cross officials, and local government officials, lauded the “Tindog Leyteno Tabang Program” works of the agency which aim to “contribute to building safe and resilient communities.”
A four-year program, the “Tindog Leyteno Tabang Program” initiated in the “identifying and addressing various factors that will help people sustainably rebuild their lives, livelihoods and assets while ensuring that future climate, environmental and disaster-related risks are addressed or minimized.”
The program has funding of P868 million that covers six sectors comprising health, shelter, water and sanitation, livelihood and disaster risk reduction.
It covers 23 barangays in Alangalang, Mac Arthur, Mayorga and Tacloban City.
The program’s overall outputs include 26, 820 individuals reached; 5,364 households reached; 5,338 individuals received training; 113 staff and volunteers trained; 4,419 students trained; and 18 schools assisted.
These achievements, according to Gordon, are the results of “hard work and dedication both from the Red Cross volunteers and recipients.”
The residents in Villa Imelda Relocation Project agreed on this as they saw how their new community being turned into a resilient one, with their site being constructed with a multipurpose hall, 14 community solar lights, a drain system, installation of household-level water connections to all 24 duplex housing units.