Transcript Slide 1

The Philippines
A group of over seven
thousand islands off the
coast of South-East Asia
With a population of 100
million people
The third most at
risk country in the
world to natural
disasters
There are over
160 ethnic
groups and
languages in the
Philippines.
Over 80% of Filipinos are Catholic
This church is being used to store food supplies after a typhoon.
More than one third of Filipinos live in rural areas.
The main cash crops grown by farmers are rice, corn,
coconut, sugarcane and bananas.
On December 3, 2012 Typhoon Bopha made
land fall on the southern island of Mindanao.
It was a category 5 super typhoon with wind speeds up to
278km/hr.
Nearly 2,000 people died and 200,000 more
people were left homeless.
60% of the coconut trees were destroyed.
As a result many coconut farmers lost their
livelihoods.
Because 25% of the population live below the poverty
line it is difficult for people to bounce back after a
disaster.
The Philippines experiences at least 20 typhoons
per year. At least oneof these causes significant
damage.
The Philippines is also susceptible to floods
Metro Manila
And earthquakes
Bohol, Central Visayas
To help in emergencies Caritas Aotearoa NZ works
with its partner agency, Caritas Philippines.
Humanitarian
agencies like
Caritas use a
model called ‘the
emergency cycle’
to help plan their
work after a
disaster.
The Emergency Cycle
Disaster Occurs
RESPONSE PHASE: Aid agencies and locals
begin to assess the damage and clean up.
Tarpaulins are supplied for emergency shelter
Food and clean water distributed
RECOVERY PHASE: Houses are rebuilt
People begin to grow their own food again
Mitigation Phase
Communities are rebuilt in such a way as to
reduce the risk of damage in another typhoon.
This house is strapped to
the foundations with
metal strips to make it
more stable in a storm.
This village was re-located away from a
stream to prevent flooding.
Preparedness Phase
This typhoon shelter provides a safe evacuation centre in a
storm or flood.
Caritas assists at every stage of the cycle
Subsidiarity
When working with people
after a disaster, Caritas
tries to put into action
the Catholic social
teaching principle of
subsidiarity.
This means that decisionmaking about how to
rebuild involves the
contribution of those
who have been affected.
With the help of agencies such as Caritas, Filipino
communities will be able to Build Back Better so that
they will be more resilient to future disasters.