* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Six months on, the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan still shapes the landscape of the Philippines.
In that time humanitarian work has shifted from emergency relief, to essential rehabilitation. The task at hand is still enormous, accessing the essentials for survival- clean water, food- are still a struggle for some. To add to this, five million people lost their homes, many still need assistance to help rebuild them.
The question is how we best help people rebuild homes- and through that their lives?
Humanitarian agencies learnt a lot from the disaster in Haiti, now some of those lessons are being successfully implemented in the Philippines.
World Vision has dealt with the country’s urgent need for shelter with a relatively new concept- instead of building shelters for people, allow people to build homes for themselves.
As simple as it may sound, in my twenty years experience with humanitarian crises, this project stands apart. Perhaps the most difficult point to grasp, is why it wasn’t around ten years ago.
The premise is as uncomplicated as they come- engage with local communities. This has meant workshops where practical demonstrations take place on shelter building. World Vision staff offer tutorials on how to erect safe structures, with insights such as using the correct nails and trusses that will make shelters more resilient to strong winds and natural disasters. Those attending are then given the necessary equipment to go out and build. In a region that experiences around 20 typhoons annually, the importance of this is hard to emphasize.
The benefits of this approach are threefold; it allows for essential equipment to be distributed and built far quicker than if we were reliant on contractors to do a similar job. In the longer term it also carries the potential to be a far more cost effective option for humanitarian agencies, meaning crucial aid can be spent on other necessities. But finally, it serves to empower individuals who have lost their homes, livelihoods and independence- helping those within communities rebuild their own neighborhoods.
World Vision has so far targeted 14,000 households with the scheme, supported by education, sanitation and other key programmes. Crucially, around a third of those who’ve already taken part have been women. Jerome Arana, a shelter manager for World Vision noted that it’s in fact female participants who’ve proven some of the most eager to learn such new skills.
Aid agencies around the country have also employed similar techniques to cope with the millions in need of urgent care. Based on initial feedback, it appears to be a shift in thinking that offers real beneficial change for how humanitarian groups deal with future disasters.
Six months on I’m optimistic that we may be helping the people here to build not just better homes, but a more secure future.
