Help Return Filipino Children to a Safe School

Dear Donors,

Our work in Southern Leyte kicked off in mid-May, where we aim to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for students affected by Typhoon Rai. All Hands and Hearts (AHAH) is constructing a disaster-resilient building for Mahayag Elementary School, featuring two classrooms using Cement Bamboo Frame Technology (CBFT), an innovative and sustainable system. In collaboration with a local engineering and architecture partner.  In addition, we will offer training and a maintenance manual for the CBFT building to ensure its longevity and foster community ownership, conduct Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) training to prepare the community for future disasters and coordinate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Child Protection training with local specialists, inviting students, teachers, parents and community members to participate in these public events throughout the program.

A full staff team of 12 - 50% international and 50% Filipino - the first 8 of our 25  residential volunteers and 10 local masons and carpenters broke ground for the foundation that will become the new building with its 4 new classrooms.  Please see the exciting new pictures reflecting this flurry of recent activity.

For the first time, our Female Mason Training program - long a fixture in our Nepal programs - will be implemented in the Philippines. We invited four local women to be trained in construction skills and CBFT building techniques throughout the course of the 5-month build. These women are the sole wage earners for their households.  They have indicated a strong desire to cross over traditional gender roles and seek job training in the construction industry - both to care for their own homes and to seek paid work in masonry positions in the future.  We look forward to reporting on this wonderful experience in future monthly reports.

Thank you to all our current and future donors for your interest and support for another All Hands and Hearts Safe Schools project!  We are so excited to share this program with you.

Christine