Prulife continues house building program in Bantayan Island, Cebu

• Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=1&rid=898689
• Saturday, June 25, 2016

(PNA), RMA/JSV/PJN

BANTAYAN ISLAND, Cebu, June 25 (PNA) -- Focus on areas hard-hit by Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), one of the strongest cyclone to date in the world, where aid were scarce was the idea of Prudence Foundation of utilizing its finances and maximizing its benefits.

Bantayan Island, located at the west of Cebu’s northern end, is an ideal area for Prudence since about 90 percent of the island’s population , which according to the 2015 census numbers to about 125,726, was badly devastated by the typhoon.

Prudence Foundation Executive Director Mark Fancy told reporters that their help was much needed in this island because bulk of the aids, both from the government and domestic and foreign donors, had been poured in Tacloban City and the rest of the province of Leyte, where at least 10,000 people perished.

”We want to help areas that received little support,” he said.

The foundation targeted to build 126 houses in the island, to be funded by a USD 2 million allocation, to be used also for relief and long-term recovery effort.

Employees from the 12 offices of Prudential Corporation Asia, the business unit of UK-based Prudential plc in the region, gathered in Bantayan Island in 2013 to start the construction of new house buildings with the help of the local government and non-governmental organization Habitat for Humanity.

In 2015, 65 disaster-resilient homes, which can withstand winds of up to 275 kilometer per hour (kph), were turned over to home partners or beneficiaries.

This week, from June 18-25, 2016, another batch of Prudential Corporation Asia, particularly from Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Cambodia, trooped again to Bantayan Island to build about 62 houses in the island’s Sulangan village.

Fancy said the latest batch of volunteers had the hardest time compared to the previous three batches due to the weather conditions, a combination of rain and temperature of up to 38 degree Celsius.

The solutions to this – raincoat and lots of water, he said.

”They were so tired after the first day but that changed from the second day onwards,” Fancy said.

Fancy said the volunteers had realizations on what they were doing.

”It raised awareness among them that what they’re doing is something that has tangible results. That they are donating a part of their life for something important,” he said.

”It puts life into perspective. Whatever you have now there’s no hierarchy among the volunteers,” he said.

Asked on the reaction of the program’s beneficiaries, Fancy said Filipinos and Asians, in general, were happy people.

”Their resilience is astronomical. They continue to have a ‘can do’ attitude despite what happened to them. The spirit and optimism is there. There’s definitely a Filipino spirit in the works,” he said.

On the eventual turnover of the houses, Fancy said they were not that particular “but we’ll make sure that we will not leave until the houses are not finished."

”We’re quite tenacious. You have to keep pushing,” he said.

Fancy said the foundation was very thankful to the local governments in the area and to Habitat for helping in the realization of the program.

The local governments vowed to provide the basic necessities such as water and electricity connections and drainage system while Habitat provides the information on what areas and which entity to tie-up with.

One of the special part of the program is the participation of those from Prudential Corporation Asia’s Indonesia office who are Muslims and are in the middle of the month-long Ramadan, which will run until July 15.

Muhammad Perdana, a trainor for new agents, said he is happy to be part of this batch of the Regional PRUvolunteer Program.

He said the people were so nice and it made him forgot that he’ was fasting.

”I’ve been volunteering for long now and the manual labor is fine with me even while I’m fasting,” he said.

Fancy the Muslims’ participation and strength during the five-day program is amazing.

”I don’t know where they are getting their energy,” he said.

Jasmit Brar, Director of Acturial in Prudential’s office in Hong Kong and a second timer in the program, said she really wanted to be part of the volunteering program because it makes her realize the worth of what she has in life right now.

”It’s good to know that you’re doing something that would help others that has tangible impact,” she said.

”After I came here in 2014 I realized that I wanted to do more with my life. I’m really lucky to know that there are people who have nothing but remain happy and I want to share what I can with them,” she added.