Raising Hope through ‘Raising Roof’

COURT HOUSE – Rev. Cosme de la Pena waited five long days for word from his family after Typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines 40 miles from his hometown of Carigara, in Leyte Province. Finally, his sister Maria Reyes, was able to send him a text message after travelling for five hours by public jitney to reach a community with electricity and communication services. She spoke with him on the telephone, assuring him that she was safe, along with their brother, children, father and five family dogs.
When his siblings’ village of Bagong Lipunan was completely destroyed, they and more than 40 other village members took shelter at their father’s home, erecting tents in each room to replace the blown-off roof. After two days, the villagers returned to their village and discovered it a total loss of homes, church, school, government buildings, and the business center. Their vegetable crops, a sole source of income, were also wiped out. De la Pena’s family was able to remain in their father’s house because it was constructed of concrete. The other villagers built temporary shelters where their bamboo houses had been.
Typhoon Haiyan (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda) is the second-deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing more than 5,000 people in that country alone. Names of typhoons in the Philippines are chosen for letters of the alphabet; Yolanda was the 25th storm in 2013. Relief goods arrived from the U.S., the U.K., and other countries but were hampered by another storm after Yolanda.
Father Cosme’s sister keeps in touch with her brother two or three times a week when she travels hundreds of miles to other communities to purchase supplies. Communications are not expected to be restored for at least five months in their village and children will not return to school until February.
Since 2002, Father Cosme of Our Lady of the Angels Parish has formed project “Raising Roof” to aid his family and neighbors. The project assists villagers in rebuilding their homes with lumber from coconut trees donated by De la Pena’s father and labor performed by the townspeople, similar to Amish barn raisings.
Our Lady of the Angels Parish, with assistance by Pastor Father John O’Leary, their CCD students, and the Court House Knights of Columbus, is collecting donations of money, canned goods, and small to medium-sized t-shirts and shorts to ship to his village.
Father Cosme visited his loved ones just one month prior to the storm. “The magnitude of the disaster is beyond my imagination,” Cosme said. “We are always exposed to typhoons, more than 50 a year, but this one really destroyed our lives. The support they are receiving — water, food, shelter, and medicine — can give them hope and strength to stand up and move on. They need material support, but also emotional. We can make a difference in our community.”
Donations to the Raising Roof project can be brought to Our Lady of the Angels Roman Catholic Church, 35 Mechanic Street, Court House. For more information, call 465-5432.
To contact Linda Duffy, email lduffy@cmcherald.com.