Almera’s Story

From December 16-17, the Philippines was hit with its worst storm of recent memory. Super Typhoon Rai, known locally as Odette, displaced over half a million people and damaged or destroyed 800,000 homes.

Almera lives in the capital city of Cebu with her husband and eight children. Accustomed to her rainy homeland as she was, Almera was not expecting a storm of Rai’s magnitude–let alone getting caught up in it.

But this time was different. Almera and her family found themselves in the direct path of one of the strongest storms to make landfall in the world in 2021.

The equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, Typhoon Rai caused vast destruction across 11 regions where millions of people were already living below the poverty line and still in the process of recovering from previous storms. 

Almera’s family managed to find refuge elsewhere. But when they returned home, all that remained was a pile of wood, metal, and collapsed coconut and mango trees. 

Thanks to ShelterBox donors, our in-country office and local Rotary partners were able to mobilize quickly to support families with the aid they need. 

For Almera, tools as simple as a tarpaulin have proved transformative for her family’s comfort and safety as they face the rest of the Philippines’ notorious rain season.

We at ShelterBox customize our aid to best meet the needs of the community we are serving. For Almera and many other Filipino families, their priority is repairing their homes. Enter our ShelterKits, complete with rope, tarps, and other essential tools.

Your ongoing support ensures ShelterBox is ready when the unthinkable happens. Your donations provide vital stock in our warehouses, which means we have the ability to respond as quickly as possible to provide shelter aid to the families who need it most.

Thanks to you, we have now been able to support 20,765 households over Phase 1 and 2 of our response!

There is no end to disaster in sight but that doesn’t mean we can’t provide significant relief to those affected by them.

Your generosity helps us to ensure that displaced families are never without shelter, supplies, or hope for long.