Hands On Disaster Response is now All Hands Volunteers

Project Santo Domingo after 60 Days

Buy a Banca, Launch a Banca

Wow! The idea was simple: Hands On furnishes the materials and expert builder, then the boat owner builds his own boat, his livelihood. The outcome was overwhelming. On a perfectly gorgeous February day our volunteers helped carry the boats, some finished with names chosen by donors, the ¼ mile from the community build area to the beach. The omnipresent children, proud fathers and hardworking mothers of the barangay Salvacion gathered near the sea for the blessing of the fleet carried out by the Catholic priest. The fishermen knelt next to their boats, shielding candles from the wind, as the priest asked for their safety on the seas. The moment was too much for many (some even now …as “they” write this). The boats were launched and the volunteers were given rides, followed by rides for the children and a celebration of food, laughter, and fun. Rachel Kroeker guided this project from day one, persevering with help from other volunteers over language barriers, gender stereotyping, and a general lack of woodworking skills. She shaped a very, very successful and most rewarding project and a BIG thank you to all of you who made donations to this project.

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…help is needed, and appreciated. Typhoon Reming was definitely a major disaster in the Philippines, and the small towns where the average daily wage hovers around $3 and most people live in tiny huts with tin or reed roofs are definitely poor. I’ve spent the first two weeks of January at the Hands On project in the barangay (village) of San Isidro, in the municipality of Santo Domingo, a town near the city of Legazpi, a few hours from Manila.

This is a poor rural area, with surrounding rice fields and fishing as the major food sources. Their homes and livelihood were both affected by a category 5 (highest level) typhoon that struck on November 30th, and triggered massive flows of accumulated sodden ash, called lahar, off the slopes of Mt. Mayon, an active volcano that is 6 miles away from our project site. The lahar flow redirected rivers, eliminated rice fields, mowed down homes, destroyed most trees (including the materials normally used for roofs and walls). Fishing fleets were destroyed and power will be out for months.

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