Volunteer Programs in Tacloban City, Philippines

While Tacloban is the capital city of Leyte and a more modern Visayan city, it faces the same social and environmental challenges that the rest of the Philippines face. Tacloban is a place where villagers come to visit a modern shopping mall or see a movie, it is a city where they can eat at one of the many delicious local restaurants like Ocho or international fast food establishments. Outside of these restaurants are street children, because public welfare programs are still limited and sometimes inefficient because social welfare offices are often influenced by politics.

Many villagers migrate to Tacloban in search of work only to find themselves squatters in already overcrowded and unhealthy neighborhoods. Educational challenges abound in Tacloban, as many children do not attend school for lack of uniforms and books or because they are needed to work alongside their parents to obtain enough income to sustain themselves daily. The recent and limited acceptance of birth control nationally has not found its way to many local villages or provinces, where women, on average, have over five children and typically live in single room native huts. Not to mention the fact that domestic violence, poor nutrition, and preventable illness also plague Tacloban City’s more than 200,000 residents.

The increasing strength of storms ravaging through the region have left Tacloban even more vulnerable, as a city that sits near sea level facing the ocean head on. Mudslides due to heavy rains or typhoons, compounded by tree clearing, have led to entire schools or villages being buried. Most notably, in November of 2013 Tacloban took the full force of the Super Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) with 300 km an hour winds and a 30 foot ocean storm surge. While much of the city shows signs of improvement, since the storm killed more than ten thousand people in the region, there are still signs of its devastation all around. Tent cities have popped up, along with substandard row houses developed by the local government with limited funding. There is still much to be done as part of the recovery of Tacloban City, including the emotional recovery of its’ residents who continue to grieve their losses as they try to put their lives back together.