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DSWD Core Shelter project, Philippines
The Philippine Archipelago is
one of the most disaster prone areas of the world. It is vulnerable in
varying degrees to hazards in varying forms of typhoons, floods,
landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, storm surges
and sea level changes. After Typhoon Sisang in 1987 which completely
destroyed over 200,000 homes Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) decided to start a programme of providing typhoon
resistant housing for families.
Limited financial resources were used in cost-effective way, providing
shelter to meet immediate needs as well as reducing the need to have
to rebuild in the event of subsequent typhoons. 450 of the houses were
built as a pilot in the most severely affected regions of the
Philippines. The shelters withstood the typoons without any damage,
giving confidence to officials and beneficiaries alike and continue to
expand all over the Philippines.
These core shelters are low cost yet structurally strong indigenous
shelters capable of withstanding wind speeds of 180 kph. They are
built using locally available materials and with the traditional
building skills of the local people. 30,000 of these shelters have
been built in Philippines and are proving highly successful, not only
in terms of providing strong, typhoon resistant houses but also in
promoting self reliance, community development and income generation
opportunities for desperately poor people through micro-financing,
technical aid disbursement, setting up neighborhood associations,
The success of the project is not only in
terms of the technical ability of the houses to withstand typhoons but
also ion terms of empowering and enabling poor people to take greater
responsibility of their own lives, as well as the comprehensive
improvement in general living standards in their communities.
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