The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is helping families in the Philippines rebuild homes destroyed in Typhoon Caloy. The powerful typhoon swept through the country in mid-May, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in agricultural and infrastructural damage.

Typhoon Caloy, also called “Chanchu,” first made landfall on May 12, 2006, at Northern Samar in central eastern Philippines. More than 50,000 residents have been affected by the typhoon, whose destructive path cut through the center of the country.

The typhoon’s force was most severely felt in the central provinces of Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, Romblon and Iloilo, where Caloy’s strong winds damaged or completely destroyed thousands of homes, while storm surges swept many coastal residences to sea.

ADRA provided building materials for 200 families in the rural areas of Occidental and Oriental Mindoro. Each family received nipa shingles (sections of woven coconut leaves used to construct walls and roofs), nails, and hammers to use in rebuliding their homes.

To assist in building temporary shelters in the urban area of Iloilo, ADRA distributed tarps to 120 evacuees. In the province of Romblon, ADRA provided 100 families with emergency packets containing rice, noodles, oil, soy sauce, sugar, biscuits, matches, candles, blankets, laundry soap, and toiletries.

ADRA coordinated the relief effort with local government agencies, which determined the criteria for selecting beneficiaries based on the severity of damage to their homes.

The project is worth US$10,000, benefiting a total of 420 families. ADRA International, the ADRA Asia office in Thailand, and the ADRA office in the Philippines funded the project.

ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious affiliation, age, or ethnicity.