REBUILD TACLOBAN CONTINUES: 

economic livelihood projects for Tacloban Women Survivors of Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda

MARAMING SALAMAT DONORS!

WE’VE RAISED $40,605 OF OUR $50,000 FUNDRAISER GOAL! $9,395 TO GO!

$200 to sponsor a Filipina entrepreneur thru the Women’s Training Center.

$200 to sponsor a Filipina woman to learn a technical job skill.

$200 to sponsor a Women's Survival Kit 

FWN'S TACLOBAN LIVELIHOOD PROJECTS

Maraming Salamat “Rebuild Tacloban” Donors!

Thank you to all who donated in support of the Filipina women and girls that survived Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in the Philippines! Your contribution and all proceeds will go to the special projects FWN has ignited to help in the sustainability of the Rebuild Tacloban projects.

Rebuilding the infrastructure of Tacloban will take years. We need your continuing support. Join FWN now and together help the Women and Girls of Tacloban, Philippines.

To view photos of the special projects in Tacloban, visit http://photos.filipinawomensnetwork.org.

Maraming Salamat and Thank YOU to Marsha Garces Williams, our major donor ($25,000) -

Tacloban Fundraiser Donors (general fund)

Micro Enterprise Revolving Loan Fund

In collaboration with Philippines Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Inc-Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD-MRI), the Filipina Women’s Network will assist in the re-invigoration of grassroots enterprises, known as Sari Sari stores, through store reconstruction materials and tools, as well as ensuring reactivation of market supply chains for goods to flow. Many of the women’s husbands are fishermen and need to purchase boats and fish nets.

CARD-MRI requires $25,000 fund for the Micro Enterprise Revolving Loan Fund, and in support FWN has helped kick-start the project with a $10,000 grant launched February 28, 2014 in Tacloban City. See photos at http://photos.filipinawomensnetwork.org

The loan ranges about $200 to $300 per borrower depending on the business. In addition, business counselors will also be provided. The loan is payable from 6 to 12 months with an option for weekly or monthly payments, and the interest will be very low and affordable (1%—3%). All loan payments will flow back to the fund.

FWN Women’s Center

Help us build a women’s training center!

To support the Solar Project, there is a need to have a training center with a daycare facility.

Currently, we are working with (former) Mayor of Marikina City Marides Fernando. Marides is now a private entrepreneur and her firm (www.bfmetalcorp.com) has a government contract with the Philippine Department of Education to build 2,000 classrooms. Marides has offered to build a Training Center on vacant land owned by the Mondejar Family where some of the women beneficiaries of the Solar Power Systems Training Program will be trained.

A 65 square meter classroom will cost $25,000 to build and also requires 100 square meters of land area. FWN CEO Marily Mondejar has pledged her share of the Mondejar vacant land in Cabalawan, Tacloban City for this project if the location is accessible to public transportation.

FWN helped rebuild the Convent and Media Center of the Pauline Sisters in Tacloban City with a $10,000 grant. The Pauline Sisters will allow us to conduct our trainings at the Alberione Hall (once it’s repaired with solar panels). Currently, the Pauline Sisters have been helping the 25 women we’ve selected at the center. Here's the Pauline Sisters' Wish List:

• Camcorders

• Talk back intercom_Vid recorder

• Video Mixer

• Wireless Microphones

• MAC and PC Computer Systems with video and audio software programs

FWN also donated $5,000 to the Holy Infant College's Balay Darangpanan - Mercy Center - as the Psychosocial Healing Center for Women, Girls and Children Survivors of Typhoon Yolanda and the Mercy Hospital Tacloban City (see photo below). Their Wish List includes:

• E-Library Development and acquisition of reference materials and equipment in setting up the Library

• Computerized tomography (CT scan) equipment

• Elevator for their 4-story hospital. They have to rely on staff members carrying patients up flights of stairs.

Solar Powered Systems Job Skills Training

The Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) is collaborating with SolarSolutions Philippines and the Climate Change Commission with the Office of the President of the Philippines on a job skills training program. This collaboration was initiated with the support of Secretary Mary Ann Lucille Sering (FWN Global100 ‘13).

With the support of a local partner in Tacloban, headed by Sr. Tonette Echavez of the Pauline Sisters in Tacloban City, FWN has pre-selected 25 women beneficiaries who are Haiyan survivors living in the UN Tent City.

In this special program, the women will be trained to assemble solar panels and to install these panels in homes. SolarSolutions, our technical partner, will install 25 solar power lighting and cellphone charging systems with the women beneficiaries.

The women will be trained by SolarSolutions and will do actual installations together in their bunkhouses, tents, or evacuation centers.

SolarSolutions required a $13,000 budget:

• Cost of materials and installation:

  • P 17,000/system x 25 systems = P 425,000

• Allowance for the women beneficiaries:

  • P 250/day x 3 days x 25 women = P 18,750

• Logistics costs:

  • shipping of materials = P 20,000

  • airfare for TechTeam and subject matter experts = P 25,000

• Meals and Accommodation = P 20,000

• Miscellaneous Costs (i. e. staffing) = P 15,000

FWN launched the training project with a $15,000 grant and the first training was held February 28, 2014.

FWN launched this training program with a request to fast track the assignments of the bunk houses to the first 25 women we’ve selected. Through the training program, women will be motivated to learn the technical skills to install solar panels by installing the panels in their ‘new’ homes. In addition, the solar panels can also provide additional income for the women by allowing them the choice to charge others a minimal fee to charge cell phones or other electronic products.

Why Solar Energy?

• Low maintenance costs

  • Solar panels have a Lifespan of 25 years

  • Battery lasts 3-5 years

• No operational costs

  • High poverty rates existed in target beneficiaries even prior to Haiyan. These communities will continue to benefit from free solar energy even when main grid-power returns

• Slows down global warming

  • Haiyan is an effect of global warming. Resorting to renewable energy will help avoid the recurrence of a similar disaster

FWN seeded the $15,000 to seed the Solar Powered Systems Skills Training Program and 25 solar panels kits.

Women’s Survivor Kit

The rebuilding of the women of Tacloban is going to take at least 1-2 years, maybe more. Rape and trafficking incident reports have increased and we’re putting together a Women’s Survivor Kit to help women protect themselves and to help with their daily lives.

Our goal is to have at least 1,000 kits for the women which will require a $35,000 budget.

The Women’s Survivor Kit is composed of the following items:

• Waka Waka solar charger and lamp (size of a cell phone)

  • Charges cell phones or shines 40 hours of light on one day of solar (http://us.waka-waka.com/products/)—$24.50 whole sale for a minimum order of 1,000 pcs

• Cell phone

  • Please donate a cell phone you no longer use and can be unlocked. To determine if your phone can be unlocked:

    • Dial *#06#

    • Your phone's IMEI will show.  If it shows 00 or 01 or 02, then you CAN NOT donate the phone

  • If you wish to donate a phone that can be unlocked, please mail to FWN, PO Box 192143, San Francisco, CA 941

• Certified Organic Seeds

  • For home vegetable gardens (can be grown in pots) so families would have a source of fresh vegetables. $1/packet of 8 vegetable seeds.

• Water Purification Tablets

  • Emergency disinfection of drinking water of questionable bacteriological quality. Boiling water is difficult right now as common kitchens are limited. Two tablets makes 1 quart of water. Ready in 35 minutes. $6.95 / bottle of 50 tablets