Blogger does volunteer work on Leyte Island for recovery from Typhoon Haiyan

Ariel Neidermeier

The Philippine countryside still shows the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan .

ALL HANDS VOLUNTEERS had teams working in the Philippines when Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines, allowing the disaster relief agency to be among the first responders on the ground. Within a month of the storm, Project Leyte, opened and volunteers started to pour into the country looking to help those in need. 

Blogger Ariel Neidermeier

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, the volunteers' initial efforts were focused on the distribution of food and other non-food related items, debris removal and the deconstruction of damaged structures in the province of Ormoc. In February 2014, it expanded its project to the municipality of Kananga where All Hands partnered with the World Health Organization on debris clearance/management and repairs for the district’s sole hospital.

After months of emergency response work, All Hands pledged to stay and help the people recover from Haiyan and its efforts shifted to helping survivors rebuild their homes and lives. As a result of this decision, while some NGOs moved on, All Hands made a home in Tacloban, listening to the needs of the community and making every effort to meet them.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, All Hands has built and repaired more than 550 homes, shelters, hospitals and schools. It has built community spaces in six barangays (village) asking local Filipinos to help design what they want to see in their community. A woodshop program was created that focuses on teaching underprivileged teenagers basic carpentry, so that they can both learn a key skill and improve their confidence. 

DONATE: If you wish to donate to Helping Hands Volunteers, click here.

All Hands has expanded its efforts to the neighboring island of Samar, helping to build an evacuation center for a municipality that was left in a state of ruins after Typhoon Haiyan. This momentous effort was powered by 1,000 dedicated volunteers who dropped everything to help the Filipino people at the moment of their greatest need.

Recently, Filipina/American blogger Ariel Neidermeier of AsAm News joined All Hands' reconstruction efforts in Leyte and is writing about her experience. Following is her first installment as she begins her journey:

All Hands photo

Volunteers helped distribute food immediately after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines.

The Journey begins ...

By Ariel Neidermeier

Reprinted from AsAm News

IT TOOK two plane rides, an extended stop over in Cebu City, and a 3-hour ferry ride, but I made it to Leyte island in the Philippines.

From Cebu City, you can catch a ferry to Ormoc, a port city on the west side of Leyte. In Ormoc, I caught a jeepney – an open-air public bus – to Kananga, where All Hands Volunteers has set up it’s volunteer base camp and hub of operations. From there, they deploy groups of volunteers to various projects around the island. These range from rebuilding schools and homes to taking down the walls of broken hospitals to begin the reconstruction process.

My immediate thoughts on the state of Leyte island post-Haiyan are grim. On the drive from Ormoc to Kananga, which is located inland, on the west side of the island, we passed countless buildings missing roofs and walls; downed powered lines that have been left tangled in destroyed building and shrubbery. In the worst cases, the houses were simply a pile of rubble on the ground.

Driving through the countryside, I also noticed that all the trees look odd. The coconut trees that dot the horizon of this tropical place look spindly and bare; with whole fronds missing. The trees are also bowed in unnatural positions, with leaves bent and twisted. You can clearly see the ravages of the wind and rains from the storm.

Ariel Neidermeier

Volunteers dig to prepare for the foundation of a new home.

From the Kananga headquarters, All Hands is deploying groups of 5 to 15 volunteers to various rebuilding projects that need assistance throughout the island. I worked on a project digging foundations for a community of permanent homes called Rotary GK Village. The project is sponsored by Gawad Kalinga, a organization that sets up rebuilding projects in local communities in the Philippines.

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Community members are chosen by lottery and able to pay for their houses through labor.
So, if a family works a certain amount of hours, their labor translates into the price of the house.

For roughly eight hours, we dug 80 meter trenches and 50 meter holes to prepare for the laying of the foundation blocks for a tract of three houses. We worked alongside the Filipinos who are working on their own homes. In this hot, humid climate, this is back-breaking work. It’s necessary to take a break every 30 minutes and drink excessive amounts of water. I have a new found respect for manual laborers, to say the least.

Ariel Neidermeier

The children motivate the author to keep working in the tropical humidity.

The children of the village watched and giggled at us as we worked. They were incredibly interested in knowing our names, ages and origins. All of them were lively and friendly. By the end of the day, they began yelling “Ate Ariel!” (Ate translates roughly into ‘Big Sister.’ It’s a term of endearment and respect) whenever I walked past. Honestly, the only thing that gave me the motivation to continue working under the hot sun for hours were their happy smiles.

VIDEO: Watch the volunteers and their work

Today, I’m continuing on to Tacloban to join a new base of volunteers who will be working on projects outside and around the city. All Hands is slowly transitioning its main base to Tacloban and a group of seven of us are joining the small group of volunteers that are already there. While Kananga and Ormoc City felt the damages of the heavy rains and winds, Tacloban and its surrounding areas on the east coast of Leyte, were hit directly by the storm surge. I know the damages on that side of the island will be much worse than here.

Stay tuned for more information about Leyte post-Haiyan and what I find in Tacloban.

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