THE government of the Czech Republic is donating more than P6 million for the rehabilitation of the settlements in the areas of Luzon drastically hit by Category 5 Typhoon Ompong in September 2018.
The six-month project will be implemented by the local branch of the US-based nongovernment organization Build Change in the areas most affected by the typhoon, particularly the Cordillera Administrative region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and the Ilocos region, where Ompong damaged vital infrastructures, homes and crops used for household consumption and for livelihood.
Build Change, supported by the Philippines’s Shelter Cluster, will collaborate with affected communities and organizations carrying out shelter repair and rehabilitation programs by providing them with training and technical assistance to strengthen and improve the structural performance of houses affected by Ompong.
According to the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Manila, the approach is highly cost-effective that leverages on the resources that the communities and organizations spend on shelter recovery, shifting the response from risky to resilient. Thus, houses affected by Ompong will not only be strengthened, but also able to better resist future disasters.
Ambassador Jaroslav Olša Jr. said: “Czech people sympathize with those affected by natural disasters in the Philippines. Immediately after the devastating Typhoon Ompong hit Northern Luzon, the Czech government expressed its readiness to provide assistance. We have identified Build Change to implement our vision of making the vulnerable houses made from lightweight materials more stable and further resilient to disasters.”
The Czech Republic had already provided its humanitarian assistance to the Philippines in the past. In the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, the Czech Republic provided humanitarian aid worth P17 million to the most devastated regions of Eastern Visayas.
In 2016 the European country financed a project of the Ateneo de Naga University that focused on assistance to affected Bicolanos by Typhoon Nina.
Image credits: Embassy of the Czech Republic, Manila