Hi guys!

As you may or may not know, I have been volunteering in the Philippines on the island of Leyte for the past 3 months. I had no idea what to expect coming here, and I don't think you can realise the devastating affect of Typhoon Yolanda until you are here and have spent some time with the communities and people most affected by the strongest storm in recorded history. Even so, no outsider can understand the magnitude of what people lost as a result of the typhoon. A teenage girl aged 16 wrote to us and said "one of the worst things is to die but not have died". Another Filipino kindly shared his typhoon story with me and he said, it was the scariest time of his life but at the same time showed him what was the most valuable things to him, his family and his community. There is an expression in Tacloban, the city I'm staying in, which is "Tindog Tacloban" which I believe means "Rise up Tacloban". And they sure have. The Filipinos strong sense of community, love, honesty and family makes them some of the strongest people I've met. They have been so welcoming to us and are always smiling. Our mission is to help them keep smiling.
People are still living in tents, still living in houses made from scrap material with not enough space to house their families. This is a year later and people are still living like this. All Hands wants to help those in need move to transitional shelters and then onto permanent housing. Please watch the beautiful video by Chloe Lyttle demonstrating the impact moving from a tent to a transitional shelter made for one lady and her family.

http://vimeo.com/108433468

Aside from working alongside local Filipino workers helping to deconstruct, rebuild and build housing for people, All Hands hopes to be part of making communities who have been placed together on a transitional site to unite and to smile. We do this through our projects Little Dreams and Project Sunshine. Little Dreams is where twice a week we take a projector that was donated by a past volunteer to one of the communities we have been working with and show them a family friendly movie. To watch a movie with our family is something we might take for granted and not place importance on, but the joy it brings to the communities as well as the volunteers is something you cannot put a price on. Project sunshine involves spending an afternoon with the communities playing games, braiding hair, doing arts and crafts and other things which make the parents and children smile.

We are trying to raise money to help build 9 houses for families in desperate need. Please spare a bit of money you wouldn't think twice about spending down the pub or on a new outfit for a night out to help these amazing people. If you want to read more about it, please read below. But if not, thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you can be part of making a difference to these people's lives.

Lots of love, Chloe xxx

On the 8th of November 2013, Super-typhoon Yolanda hit the islands of Samar and Leyte. Nearly one year on All Hands Volunteers are still here and dedicated to helping the victims of Yolanda who are still suffering from the immediate effects of the disaster. They are homeless, helpless, but not hopeless; relying on organisations to provide them a home so that they can rebuild their lives. These families are waiting for their turn to get a helping hand.

Since March 2014 we have built 146 transitional shelters and 2 core homes. Although huge progress has been made, 31,000 of those affected by the typhoon still go to bed each night without adequate housing. Our goal is to raise 1.1 million Pesos: a peso for every home damaged or destroyed by Yolanda. With these funds, Project Leyte can build 9 permanent homes for 9 very deserving and lovely families. 

It is less than a month until the anniversary of Yolanda and AHV have some full of wonder and fun events planned for a massive fundraising push to achieve our 1.1million goal:

Bike Ride – Rise up ride on: a team of 6 All Hands Volunteers will cycle 300km from Guiuan, Eastern Samar to Ormoc in Western Leyte, following the path of Super-Typhoon Yolanda. They will be visiting and staying in communities along the way, documenting first-hand the recovery and devastation that remain nearly a year later.  

30 Days of Fun’d Challenge – All Hands volunteers and staff will show their support in participating in an on-project fundraising drive to the anniversary of Yolanda. They will be undertaking ridiculous challenges in exchange for funny photos and donations, as well as attending fundraising-related base events: cinema night, poker night and a ping pong tournament.

Fun Run – All Hands volunteers are giving up their only day off to partake in a run – dedicated to the victims of Super-typhoon Yolanda. They will be giving their time and money to partake.

Please support us, and donate!

Click on one of our team-members below to see what they're doing to hit 1.1 million pesos before November 8th.

Thank you

Our fundraising team has set out the following for: 30 Days of Fun’d Challenge

All Hands Volunteers are doing what most of us are great at doing: getting ridiculously embarrassing. But this time around it's all for an amazing cause.

Our on-project fundraising team decided it would be beneficial for all parties if volunteers went the extra mile and accepted challenges in exchange for donations. The aim being to raise enough funds to build min. nine more "in-situ" homes such as the ones mentioned above. 

This being said, we challenge you to challenge us for money. Challenge accepted? Great. This is how you may proceed:

1. Post a challenge on the page wall with the name of the individual you challenge; what the challenge consists of; and the sum you will be donating to match the volunteers ridiculousness. 

2. The volunteer will either accept or decline your challenge. Should the challenge be accepted, he/she will have a max. of 3 days to complete it (should there be no further time instructions). 

3. Once the challenge is complete we will post a video or picture of the process. And he/she may or may not ever contact you again depending on what you made them do. 

4. We will send you a link to either the individual's donation page or our general donation page and assume that you are a woman/man of your words and will therefore donate as per the implied consequence of "Challenge Accepted". 

5. We will be a step closer to our goal of raising 1.1 million Peso ($24.553) and building more homes. And we will all be infinitely happier. 

With that being said, let the games begin!