The scale of the damage brought by Typhoon Yolanda at the end of 2013 compelled us to extend our hand of assistance in ways we have never done before. Our work is still continuing even a year and a half after disaster. Once the immediate needs of the families were met, we began a house building and house repair program to get the families with blind children into safe shelter.

At the same time, we began partnering with the Department of Education to repair or rebuild the Special Education Centers that made it possible for blind children to go back to school. We also worked to provide livelihood programs for those families that lost their means of livelihood in the storm.

We have adhered to the Build Back Better philosophy in our rebuilding efforts. In this approach, the families of blind children actually find themselves in better housing and schooling situations than what they had before the typhoon. Although the typhoon was a terrible and tragic event, the Lord has found a way to bring some good out of it for the blind children we work with.