So much has happened already since we first launched this campaign. Even though PayPal has still not lifted the suspension on my account, we have decided to start work on Liezl’s house.

The old house that was destroyed by Typhoon Rai has now been taken down; now ready to mark the boundaries for the future house.

Here is the receipt of our first purchase of materials to start rebuilding, starting with the foundation:

Boyet has been working non-stop since we gave them the good news of your donations. He's been making the bricks needed for the new house.

Liezl’s father, a carpenter from another province that’s 2 hours away, has also come to help.

Liezl's parents, Robio and Wilma

Our estimate cost of the reconstruction for this one house is around 25,000 pesos. It is one of the houses that was completely destroyed. We’re taking this opportunity to rebuild it much better and stronger than it was before.

My initial target for this campaign was 50,000 pesos. This was based on the amount of government assistance that affected households could apply for, which is around 5 to 10,000 pesos, depending on the need and availability. Of course, now I’m realizing that this amount is menial, and does not at all reflect the actual need of these households.

Most of the houses in the community are in dire need to be repaired.

Aiza and her husband have used whatever debris they could find to fix a part of their house.

Here is Ivy with her baby. Her husband is still missing since the typhoon.

She has requested 2 bags of cement which, thanks to your donations, we are glad to be able to give to her.

We also saw that the town next to ours was even more severely affected (more pictures to follow on the next update). I’ve decided to increase our target amount for this campaign. If we receive over this amount, we can help even more families.

For now, I am still waiting for PayPal to lift the suspension on my account because until then, unfortunately, we are still not able to receive donations.

I will make an update here as soon as donations are possible again. Until then, thank you for your patience. And thank you again for all those who have donated so far! You have made such a big difference in our fishing community!

Update on January 21, 2022: PayPal has finally restored my PayPal account, and we are now able to to receive donations once again.