The SM Group, through its corporate social responsibility arm SM Cares, will turn-over the SM Cares Village to supertyphoon Yolanda survivors in Bogo City, Cebu on November 9, a day after the first anniversary of the supertyphoon.
The 200 houses in the SM Cares Village stand in a one-hectare lot donated by the heirs of Wenceslao and Margarita Fernan in Brgy.Polambato, Bogo City. This will be the first 200 of the 1,000 disaster-resilient houses that SM and its business partners has committed for the survivors of supertyphoon Yolanda.
Designed to exceed the requirements of the Building Code and mandated standards, each house can withstand the winds and strength of a Category 5 super typhoon without any major material damages.
The village has utilities, basic amenities like streetlights, community center and basketball court. In addition to its disaster resiliency features, the houses will also have heat resistant painted roofing to help lower interior temperature and increase energy efficiency.
The SM Group and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) inked a deal allowing RAFI to implement community-organizing, livelihood and skills training program, values formation and social services programs, in the resettlement site for Yolanda survivors in Bogo City.
SM together with its project partners, donors, and city government officials will lead the ceremonial turn-over of the houses to the beneficiaries at 10am in Polambato, Bogo City.
Recently, the SM Group held a groundbreaking ceremony in a lot donated by the Archdiocese of Palo in Brgy. New Kawayan, Tacloban City that signals the start of the construction of 400 houses. Another 200 houses will be constructed in Concepcion, IloIlo, and 200 houses for Yolanda survivors in Ormoc City.
The SM Cares Housing Project is on top of the P100 million SM has already committed to rehabilitate areas hard hit by super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in the Visayas.
