A new and safer home: a birthday gift for a young Haiyan survivor

by Leoniza O. Morales, Haiyan Response Communications

Ormoc, Leyte – After more than nine months of staying at a relative’s house, Renato and his daughter Donna Rose finally have a new and safer place they can call their home.

For the fifth grade student, the new house given to them two days after her eleventh birthday. "I can now sleep well,” she said with her eyes beaming.

“I thought I was only dreaming when the key was given to me. For a long time I dreamed of having a house with a door we can lock every time we leave. I would imagine myself opening the windows when I wake up and looking at the surroundings,” the 59-year-old widower Renato said.

That dream became real when World Vision turned over the key of the newly built house to Renato. He slowly opened the front door and the window, “I will never forget this day. I will be forever grateful.”

Renato’s family used to live in a shanty made of nipa and bamboo. The night before Haiyan struck, they left barangay Sumangga and moved to his sister’s house in the downtown. Roads were blocked by fallen trees and electric posts and it was after walking 7 km on the third day after the typhoon when he saw his house flattened to the ground. Haiyan destroyed 1.1 million houses and left 4 million people displaced.

“All our belongings were gone.”

With the help of his relatives, a makeshift shelter was built from the rubble of their hut.

But after a few days of continuous rain accompanied by wind, Donna Rose felt, “the house was shaking and being swayed by the wind. The roof was leaking. We stayed all night sitting in a dry corner.”

Renato knew they needed to return to his sister’s house.

Donna Rose can’t wait to show the house to her sisters who will be coming home this Christmas. Rina, 17 lives with her aunt in Cebu City. Angelica, 16, stays with another aunt in Ormoc City.

“My sisters send them to school. Their mother died of a stomach ailment last year. We had no money to bring her to a doctor,” Renato said. 

Renato doesn't have a stable job, but swhenever the city engineering department needs an extra hand, they hire him.

“With our situation, I couldn’t imagine we can have a house like this. And it was just given to us.”

A new home for happy memories. Donna Rose with her friends Dalia and Meka Mae.