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The Stories

Philippines Update

To date Tearfund supporters and Irish churches have raised over €180k following our Philippines appeal. This was far more than we anticipated and we are truly grateful – thank you.

Three months on from Typhoon Haiyan and our partners on the ground are moving their programmes from emergency relief to rehabilitation. In the emergency relief phase emergency supply kits were provided for families, debris removal through cash for work initiatives were set up and child friendly spaces to provide activities and support for children were established.

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The main emphasis of Tearfund Ireland’s programme in the Philippines will now become the protection of and provision for children who are very vulnerable to abuse and being trafficked at this time.

Our partner the Philippine Children’s Ministries Network (PCMN) is managing the REST programme – Restore Eastern Samar Together. Its main focus is to increase and strengthen the child protection mechanisms in 100 villages. Why Eastern Samar? Facing the Pacific, Eastern Samar was one of the first and worst hit areas by Typhoon Haiyan. In the 100 villages that Tearfund will be focussing their efforts, there are 18,468 families directly affected by the typhoon and within these families are children who have lost loved ones, the security of a place to call home and the security of a place to call school. Our mandate is to follow Jesus where the need is greatest and even before the typhoon, Eastern Samar had the highest incidence of poverty in the entire country – 63.7%.

Some of the activities of the REST programme are:

  • Support for recently orphaned children and children in need of short term care while they are seeking to be reunited with their families.
  • Day to day care for out-of-school children as they wait schools to be re opened
  • Creating support groups for parents and food security for families through the Food Always in the Home (FAITH) gardening partnership
  • Training school guidance counsellors and teachers in trauma debriefing

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