Dutch youth to help build houses for poor

CEBU, Philippines – Officials of Haarlemmermeer in The Netherlands will build five model houses for a socialized housing project seen to benefit the urban poor families in its sister city of Cebu.

They have also asked their counterpart here to identify the five beneficiaries of the project.

City public information officer Nagiel Bañacia said that the Haarlemmermeer government will send here at least 20 Dutch youth in July for the construction of five urban poor houses through the Gawad Kalinga project.

Bañacia recalled that when a group of Haarlemmermeer officials headed by Mayor Theo Weterings visited the city in January 2008, they pledged that his government will always be willing to help the urban poor families here.

The project started three years ago, but Bañacia said that until now not a single house was constructed in the city because of the non-availability of site or the lack of qualified beneficiaries.

This prompted Bañacia to ask the City Council to help identify possible beneficiaries, otherwise the opportunity for the city to avail of such project may just go down the drain.

The city officials, in coordination with the Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor, are expected to lay down possible requirements on who will be the ones to benefit the project.

In a related development, 20 Cebuano youth and adult leaders are still in Haarlemmermeer City until May 12 for the annual youth exchange program.

The city government had allocated P500,000 as its counterpart for the program’s expenses channeled through the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. as the leading non-government organization partner of the youth exchange program.

Some members of the Mayor’s Management Team have been sent to study the Haarlemmermeer’s public health and hospital management because Bañacia said that the Haarlemmermeer government has shown interest to help run the Cebu City Medical Center.

Haarlemmermeer also donated life-saving vehicles and equipment worth P15 million to the city last March and that these were already turned over by the city to the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation. — Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)