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Philippines
Mindanao is prone to natural disasters, is served by weak public service delivery, and has a long history of armed conflict
Mindanao experiences a complex constellation of factors reinforcing each other to cause low levels of development. As a result, Mindanao is home to 39% of the country’s poor, with areas affected by conflict on the island experiencing a poverty incidence of 63%.
In December 2021, a Category 5 Super Cyclone called Cyclone Rai (locally known as TC Odette) made landfall on the island, bringing torrential rains, violent winds, and floods with maximum sustained winds of 195km/hr and gusts of up to 260km/hr. It was the strongest storm to hit Mindanao in 10 years and the third strongest to ever land in the northern hemisphere. The cyclone destroyed homes and crops, leaving the vulnerable communities in a difficult situation.
Impact of your Generosity
Give to the World has partnered with Maradeca, a local non-governmental organization based in Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines. Maradeca, in partnership with GTTW, provided critical food relief to 5410 families significantly impacted by the flood in the province of Lanao del Sur. The impact of the food relief packages was profound, with one widow saying, “I will no longer worry for my two weeks meals, and for this month of Ramadan, I can rest for a moment from begging my relatives for my food”.
Another powerful cyclone called Paeng made landfall a year later, showing the vulnerability of this region to tropical cyclones. Maradeca, in partnership with GTTW, provided 500 children impacted by the resulting floods and landslides with school kits, which helped children continue their education during the crisis.
Maradeca, in partnership with GTTW
Critical food relief for
5,410 families
School kits for
500 children
impacted by the resulting floods and landslides
Our work with Maradeca is rooted in deep local expertise and integration with wider responses. In both projects, Maradeca conducted site visitations to define needs, validation meetings, and monitoring and evaluation, which provided improvement points for future projects. At the same time, Maradeca coordinated with various government departments, including the Ministry of Social Services and Development, the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, and Local Government Units, to ensure our intervention was well-targeted and complemented other relief efforts.
