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Mobilizing the Community's Endogenous Potentials for Settlement Management: A Countermeasure to the Emergence of Slums

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Few days ago, Pope Francis Village Homeowners Association leaders visited Tacloban Northern Barangays to see for themselves the post-resettlement condition of their fellow Yolanda survivors.  The activity was meant to serve as an eye opener to HOA leaders of how government permanent resettlement projects are keeping up with massive structural modifications, renovations and expansions done by resettled families since they moved in to their permanent shelters.  A lead-up to the technical planning workshop, this learning activity aimed at providing the HOA leaders with a comparative benchmark of how settlements like the Pope Francis Village should deal with future home improvements without sacrificing the integrity of the whole estate and any structures therein.  Block per block, leaders noted down their observations and some relevant insights as they interact with family occupants of  the three visited resettlement sites.  In New Hope Village for instance,  families who mov
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From Breaking the Ice to Skills Scoping Exercises: Enhancing Peer Relations among PFV’s Core Youth Leaders

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This group of youngsters often spend their weekends hanging-out with their cliques. Some of them are inherently extroverts who have found new ways of expressing their selves with their respective dance groups. The open spaces and beachfront near their neighbourhoods became their common ground for staging performances. But still, there’s quite a number whose thoughts maybe as placid and deep as the calm sea water, yet often lack the confidence to unleash their untapped potentials. Sometimes, the reticent ones only need some avenues and opportunities to spark-off their innermost talents and to bring their voices, variety of emotions and imaginative prowess at work. This was the premise of PETA when it started to set off some creative workshop sessions for the youths of Pope Francis Village for they see them as an integral part in the development of the community.   Last Sunday, a workshop was organized by PETA with 20 youth volunteers from the coastal areas of San Jose Di
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From Breaking the Ice to Skills Scoping Exercises: Enhancing Peer Relations among PFV’s Core Youth Leaders

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This group of youngsters often spend their weekends hanging-out with their cliques. Some of them are inherently extroverts who have found new ways of expressing their selves with their respective dance groups. The open spaces and beachfront near their neighbourhoods became their common ground for staging performances. But still, there’s quite a number whose thoughts maybe as placid and deep as the calm sea water, yet often lack the confidence to unleash their untapped potentials. Sometimes, the reticent ones only need some avenues and opportunities to spark-off their innermost talents and to bring their voices, variety of emotions and imaginative prowess at work. This was the premise of PETA when it started to set off some creative workshop sessions for the youths of Pope Francis Village for they see them as an integral part in the development of the community.   Last Sunday, a workshop was organized by PETA with 20 youth volunteers from the coastal areas of San Jose District.  As
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A Little Dose of Kindness from the All-Time Buddies

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At first glance, one may think they’re a couple. They are usually spotted doing volunteer work in Pope Francis Village since housing construction began in April 2016.  The woman who appeared to be a little masculine does the hauling of aggregates, while the old man manually sieves the coarse sand that are used for construction.  Other times, they’re working with a group of community volunteers doing painting of steel plates and trusses for roofing. On break times, they eat together and share food. They’re just inseparable at least during those times when their houses were under construction.  This morning, I saw them participating in the synchronized clean-up activity of their  Homeowners Association.  I stayed with them for a while and that’s when I learned that they’re not actually a couple. The 52 year old woman is Anelia Magcaleng and the man whom I have mistaken as his husband is Rogelio Quinawayan, 63 years old. They came from the coastal area of Magallanes District and bo
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A Peso and a Quantum Leap for the Caterpillars

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Pope Francis Village carries the byword of community participation from its inception to site development planning, house designing to actual building of houses. This archetype of participatory approach became more prominent when the 550 families decided to come together, regardless of their varying socio-economic backgrounds and origins to form a unified Homeowners Association. It was further demonstrated during the determination of criteria and process for block and lot assignments of individual families. Some would say, the approach is full of dynamism as members engage themselves in a healthy form of contestation, co-optation or cooperation until they arrive at a consensus with the rest of their block members.   The same approach again served as an overarching backdrop of the recent election of block leaders. In a series of cluster assemblies spearheaded by the social team, community members were asked to craft and level-off on the criteria for choosing their leaders per hou
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UPA hashed-out list of families entitled to Pope Francis Village permanent housing

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The Urban Poor Associates (UPA) spearheaded three separate consultations with eleven clustered homeowners associations (HOAs) to refine their list of members who will avail of permanent housing from Pope Francis Village (PFV). The activity was held at the activity area of Pope Francis Village in Barangay 99 Diit, yesterday.  Prior to the start of land development and house construction, 550 families passed the initial screening process facilitated by UPA based on agreed qualification criteria for the PFV. The masterlist was submitted to the City Government through the City Housing Office.  However as physical development unfolds,  the social team sees the need to revisit and update the listing as there were some families who voluntarily withdrew their application and chose to avail of other housing projects. There's quite a few who are still being evaluated and may be possibly delisted on the ground of non-compliance with the agreements stated in the covenant entered into
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Relocated Yolanda Survivors Denounce Poorly-Implemented Resettlement Programs in Tacloban North

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At first sight, I was impressed by the brick-laden land mark, well-paved roads, and seemingly sturdy rowhouses. I'm sure others will have the same first impression upon entering this public relocation project in Barangay Cabalawan. As we got closer to the interiors of the permanent housing project which was supposed to be an asylum for no less than a thousand typhoon Yolanda survivors, I blew off from what I've seen as a total contrast.   The entrance to Ridge View Park, a relocation project  of National Housing Authority and the City Gove The project involves the provision of 2,000 rowhouse units to typhoon Yolanda-affected families.  Exterior paint cannot conceal the substandard and poorly-built structures often misconstrued by outsiders as a humane disaster rehabilitation assistance. Who is apt to believe that a housing unit costs Php293,000 when right in front of you are rowhouses which lack reinforcement and wall forms  not properly aligned with ground reinf
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