Text & Photos By Ariel Neidermeier
My time with All Hands Volunteers is sadly coming to a close. I’ll be leaving Tacloban to travel around the Philippines and see the other parts of this beautiful country.
The work these last two months with AHV has been hard to bear both physically and emotionally. That said, there have been many moments throughout this experience where I have been overwhelmed with the beauty of this city and its people. The residents of Tacloban show a level of resilience and fortitude that we can all learn from. I am honored to have been able to contribute to the relief effort.
It’s been six months since Yolanda made landfall in the Philippines and destroyed Tacloban City. When you speak with locals about the storm, they’ll often describe what Tacloban was like before: a quiet city by the sea, known for its beauty and cheerful people. Today, Tacloban is a city piled with rubble and debris.
The businesses in the downtown area are rebuilding and starting to thrive but the coastal barangays consist of hundreds of makeshift tents. The people in these areas continue to wait to be moved into temporary or permanent housing with no end in sight.
The relief effort in the city has shifted to the long-term recovery phase. The people of Tacloban are no longer without food, water or medical access, but they are still homeless. The task now is to acquire the land and materials to build these people homes and determine a housing plan that will prevent a repeat of the damage in future typhoons. There is still much work to be done.
To support the relief effort in Tacloban, please visit my fundraising page to make a donation to All Hands Volunteers. Your donation will support the building of temporary and long-term housing for the families that continue to live in tents months after the storm.
Before I leave Tacloban, I’ll be making one more stop to visit a family friend in Tanauan, a city south of Tacloban that also suffered terrible destruction from Yolanda. Stay tuned for reports on the damage.
To catch up with Ariel’s journey, Check out our Helping Hand for the Philippines section to catch up with all of Ariel’s blogs.