Lezo is a town in the province of Aklan situated in the island of Panay. There are about 12,000 citizens in 12 barangays. Most of them do not have regular jobs. The families survive on a hand-to-mouth existence by helping in the harvest of rice twice a year. In the interim, they take whatever day job is available. Mothers wash clothes for their neighbors twice a week, others take care of seniors citizens, some are part-time cooks, several clean houses and take care of the young children. The husbands do any manual day jobs for the town government cleaning the street or keeping the grounds of the municipal halls presentable. Some drive a motor bikes from the poblacion to the barangays and charge 10 pesos per person. The average daily family income is about 200 pesos (or $4.50).
On November 8, 2013, Friday, at about one in the afternoon the wind from mega-typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) wind started howling. This was followed shortly by continues heavy rain. Hundreds of homes in Lezo suffered severe damage with roofs blown away. Dozens of houses were complete leveled to the ground.
Immediately after the storm one of our PHI brothers, Dr. Nonie Leonidas, retired pediatrician, and his wife Thelma surveyed the damage in Mina, his own Barangay of about 250 families. They found nipa huts without roofs, several leaning to one side, many with walls gone, and some with just the hollow block foundation left. They called the barangay captain to invite families with damaged roofs to avail of emergency supplies that they and some friends funded. Within a week, 63 mothers lined up on their driveway. They were provided with emergency survival needs in the form of groceries, nails, wire and tarp. Tarp was the least expensive and fastest way to temporarily provide shelter to roofless homes.
With the help of PHI International funds from supportive donors all over the United States, serious home repair from replacing roofs to completely rebuilding homes was made possible. At the moment, PHI International, through the efforts of Dr. Nonie and Thelma Leonidas has helped at least 64 families who were provided with corrugated galvanized iron sheets for roofing, plywood or “sawali” to replace walls, wires, nails, plastic rattan, cement bags, steel bars and hollow blocks.
Currently, six months after Yolanda, there are still many houses with damaged roofs and shattered walls. Rebuilding efforts continue for as long as funds are available.
