Activities and Updates

The Pope Francis Village has the following project components:
   
  Land Acquisition and Site Development
A 12.8 hectare property has already been purchased for the project which is comparably accessible than the resettlement project established by the City Government of Tacloban for Typhoon Yolanda affected families.

The property located in Barangay Diit, Tacloban City, was assessed by a team of Architects, Geodetic and Geologists and found to be very suitable for the establishment of the Pope Francis Village.

Technical assessment shows that the said property is very ideal for the following:
  • Construction of resilient housing units as the property is a little hilly which makes it much less vulnerable to flooding, storm surge and strong wind and can very well served as the evacuation area for the people in case of flooding and storm surge.
  •   Very near the main national road;
  • Accessible to all kinds of land transportation; and,
  • Near market centers for the livelihoods of the beneficiaries
  
The 12.8 hectare property and Site Development Plan
 for Pope Francis Village at Barangay Diit, Tacloban City
         Building of Permanent Shelters
Each of the 550 poor household selected as beneficiaries of this project shall be given decent, durable and disaster resilient housing unit complete with toilet, water and electrical facilities. However, the beneficiaries shall be oriented towards “responsible stewardship” of their shelter and the community as a whole. We recognize that access to decent housing is a basic human right and guarantees living in dignity and so to preserve this right and dignity and make it sustainable, the beneficiaries shall be geared towards becoming responsible stewards of the model community entrusted to them. A concrete “PFV management systems and policies” shall be developed of which leaders and members shall be trained to manage the entire model community.

Communities trained on Basic Architectural and Structural
 Plan Reading
Rebuilding of Local Economy
The project also involves restoration of people’s livelihoods by supporting a variety of economic activities including fishing, agriculture, small business and home-craft, among others. The opportunity to earn income via employment, operation or owning an enterprise is fundamental in meeting their own needs – purchasing food and daily necessities; access to health, education, water, electricity and leisure. To ensure that the families living in the permanent relocation site will have regular and permanent sources of income, a “Livelihood Development Plan” will be developed that is reflective of the  following:
  • Resource inventory (available skills and resources)
  •  Market analysis and programming identifying potential products and market channels
  •  Improving capacity building on developing and managing enterprises
  • Development of appropriate community-managed enterprise models
  • Delivery of Business Development Services (BDS) and market facilitation
  • Establishment of linkage for financial services e.g. link to Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs)
  • Acquisition of Productive Assets
  • Establishment of partnerships with concerned institutions as possible sources of technologies, market information and finance. 

  Building of Community Social Service Facilities (ie. church, schools, parks, community centers and sports center) and Disaster Risk Reduction measures 
It is expected that families in the model community shall have their planning activities; undergo trainings and workshops for purposes of enhancing their skills and knowledge for improving their livelihoods, engaging themselves in lobby and advocacy activities. Such collective activities shall be held in community social services facilities. Likewise, the community social services facilities, church and parks shall guarantee venue for many community events and activities, including family get-togethers, Sunday worship services, sports activities, outreach programs such as medical missions, youth gatherings, and model organizational meetings. In coordination with the Regional Department of Education and LGU of Tacloban, a primary school shall be built to ensure access to education of children living in the model community. 

Construction of a Two Storey School Building at Barangay 100 San Roque, Tacloban City
that can accommodate 3,600 elementary school children of Yolanda survivors

Inherent in this integrated, people-driven model community project is building community capacities on disaster preparedness. A disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) mechanism shall be installed to the model community. It will start by building “disaster resilient” housing units for the 550 beneficiaries. DRRM will ensure immediate access to food, water, and other basic needs if and when disaster strikes. 

Organizing and Strengthening of Community Council
The 550 households who will be relocated to the permanent site will be organized into a Community Council (CC) as a sustainability mechanism of the project. The Council is envisioned to be in the forefront of:
  • Managing the permanent relocation site for peoples’ safety and order, maintenance requirements and further physical development;
  • Creation of mechanism to ensure collection of membership contributions/ dues from the 550 family beneficiaries to properly manage the whole relocation site. 
  • Having its own Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Program;
  • Managing its own collective social enterprises;
  •  Participating strongly in local and community governance;
  • Lobbying strongly on issues such as land rights, climate change and disaster preparedness;
  • Managing gender programs or projects responsive to needs of women and children; and;
  • Engaging the government’s and mobilize people on issues affecting their socio-economic status e.g. access to health, education and other basic services. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PFV Community observes a traditional house cleansing ritual

Image
The belief in the supernatural is very prominent in the Filipino culture. Performing some house cleansing rituals come into play when, people are building houses or moving to a new house. Generally people do these to ward off evil spirits and other mystical entities. As a show of respect to traditional practices of Taclobanons, I have documented a seasoned ritual called “Padugo” or offering blood of an animal as a form of sacrifice at Pope Francis Village yesterday. The ritual was performed during the pre-concrete pouring for foundations of the first batch of rowhouse units.. It involves slitting of the throat of three white chickens and dripping the blood to the excavated holes before actual pouring of cement. This was performed by a folk healer who happened to be one of the community members of Pope Francis Village. According to traditional beliefs, this practice of taking the life of a sacrificed animal will prevent the evil forces from taking the life of workers or anyone conne
Read more

Pope Francis School Building Construction: Uncovering Its Bottlenecks and Gains

Image
  The construction of the two-storey, six-classroom building at Scandinavian Elementary School in Barangay 100 San Roque, Tacloban City is one of the strategic rehabilitation assistance of Alberta School Board to children of Typhoon Yolanda survivors in partnership with Pope Francis for Resilient and Co-Empowered Sustainable Communities (FRANCESCO). The building has robust and structurally-sound features purposely designed to accommodate around 300 additional school children especially those who will be coming from Pope Francis Village. It could also serve as an evacuation building in times of emergencies and disasters. Proposed architectural design of Pope Francis School Building Project Unlike most traditional contractor-led construction practice, the Pope Francis School Building Project puts premium on integrated and people-driven approach to construction management. Here, partner communities and other relevant stakeholders are assuming a more active role in various aspec
Read more

Building Permit for Three Row House Designs Approved for Pope Francis Village

Image
After almost two months of persistent negotiations and lobby work with Tacloban City Housing Office and engineering department, building officials finally approved and released the building permit for 3 row house designs of FRANCESCO’s integrated and people-driven in-city relocation project. This is an important milestone for communities who played a compelling role in several dialogues with city authorities for the purpose of securing exemptions from building permit fees  and other related charges.  Approved row-house designs for Pope Francis Village; Photo credit: FRANCESCO, Inc.  “I feel relieved that we now have a full grip of our building permit. This is like a step closer to getting a house that we can claim our own”, says Yolanda Sembrero, one of the frontline leaders involved in building permit processing. Mrs. Sembrero also recounted a few challenges and takeaways that they have experienced in dealing with the LGU. They were initially apprised by the City E
Read more