SM builds 400 houses for Tacloban ‘Yolanda’ survivors

TACLOBAN CITY, April 18 (PNA) -- SM Foundation has turned over on Saturday 400 newly-built houses for super typhoon Yolanda survivors, the biggest housing project of the country’s giant property developer.

The village is called Pope Francis CFC ANCOP Canada community-SM Cares Village. The village is the biggest of all four SM cares housing projects since other sites have only 200 houses.

The housing project in Kawayan Village is the third batch of the 1,000 houses committed by SM Foundation for Yolanda survivors.

SM Prime officials headed by SM prime president Hans T. Sy led the turn over ceremony accompanied by Tacloban City Mayor Alfred s. Romualdez and Yedda Romualdez, representing her husband, Leyte 1st district Rep. Ferdinand Romualdez.

Palo archbishop John F. Du graced the event and thanked all the donors for their contributions to the successful completion of the project.

The 400 houses were turned over to selected beneficiaries for free. Aside from the houses the SM Cares Village has amenities such as basketball court, street lamps, sewage treatment plant, materials recovery facility, rain catchment system and provisions for water and electricity.

SM Cares, a division of SM Foundation and corporate social responsibility arm of the SM Prime Holdings, Inc. launched the disaster-resilient housing project shortly after the onslaught of super typhoon Yolanda in November 2013.

The first housing village in Bogo in Cebu was turned over in November 2014 while the second village in Iloilo city was unveiled in October 2015. The fourth and the last site in Ormoc City will be turned over in July this year.

The project is funded by SM Foundation with the support of business partners, tenants and other stakeholders. The group was able to raise PHP300 million needed to build 1,000 houses.

Some of the donors for the SM Cares Village in Tacloban include Zonta Club, Duty Free Philippines, Forever 21, ANCOP, Philippine Daily Inquirer and Sultan 900.

All the houses are disaster resilient and have roofs made of concrete slab. To ensure sustainability of the project, community programs have been put in place to make the change work for all the beneficiaries.

For Tacloban housing project, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palo (RCAP) and the Couples for Christ ANCOP (CFC-ANCOP) were the partners in charge of selecting the beneficiaries training, livelihood and values formation to enable the residents start a new life in the community. (PNA)
FFC/SQM/Lizbeth Ann A. Abella/egr