USAid chief strategist plots more help for Yolanda survivors

From the Business Mirror (Oct 2): USAid chief strategist plots more help for Yolanda survivors

UNITED States Agency for International Development (USAid) Chief Strategy Officer Carla Koppell has been in the country since Thursday to reinforce the US government’s commitment to help Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) survivors build back better.

Koppell visited Tacloban City on Friday to inaugurate education and health facilities with local government officials, led by Mayor Alfred Romualdez. She was accompanied by the new USAid Philippines Mission Director Susan Brems. The visit marked Brems’s first official trip outside Manila.

Koppell, Brems and Romualdez inaugurated a newly constructed five-classroom school building in Panalaron Central School, a tuberculosis treatment center and a birthing facility at the Diit Health Center. They also visited a community where the USAid’s US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, built transitional shelters for 130 relocated households from 17 vulnerable, high-risk coastal barangays in Tacloban City.

“To date, the US government has provided approximately $143 million to help the Philippines respond to, and recover from, the devastating effects of Yolanda. In addition to the humanitarian assistance, the USAid supports rehabilitation and recovery activities in the typhoon-affected areas, particularly in Leyte province.

The USAid assistance to these areas restores access to education, health services and livelihood activities. This includes reconstructing damaged classrooms and improving the overall physical environment of schools, hospitals, rural health units and market trading centers, as well as furnishing classroom furniture, teaching kits and hospital equipment.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/usaid-chief-strategist-plots-more-help-for-yolanda-survivors/