Stories of the Families We Serve

Danilo C, Catbalogan, Eastern Samar

When the storm surge rose, Danilo wrapped his wife and children in a floating tablecloth and held plywood in front of them as a shield. He embraced his family through two hours of wind before the water finally subsided. The family lost their concrete house and everything in it, then relocated to Manila, where Danilo found work as a sewer.

I wrapped my wife and my children with the table cloth I saw floating and put ply wood that fell from our ceiling in front of them. I embraced my whole family together with the table cloth and the plywood.

Danilo C, Catbalogan

Because of iPrevail donors, Danilo’s wife opened a small store, and his children were able to enroll in school again.

Read Danilo’s full story

Jaime L, Guiuan, Eastern Samar

Jaime waited seven sleepless days for word from his family in Guiuan. Contact finally came through US troops stationed nearby with communication equipment. His brother Mario had a one-year-old baby and no way to feed her after the market where he worked was destroyed.

I’d like to appeal to those people in America who have generous hearts to give. Please help my family to build a new home where they can be sheltered.

Jaime L, Guiuan

Read Jaime’s full story

Gemma B, Western Samar

Gemma had moved to Manila for work, leaving her mother and siblings in Western Samar. The typhoon took the family’s home and the rice fields they relied on. Her father died later that year, and her mother suffered a stroke soon after, leaving her with difficulty walking.

With my mother’s case as our main concern, we are asking for help so that my mother and siblings may find a home again.

Gemma B, Western Samar

Adelfa A, Julita, Leyte

Adelfa spent days trying to reach relatives in Julita, Leyte, most of whom farmed for a living. Word finally reached her that her father’s side of the family had survived, but their house was destroyed and they were sleeping outdoors with no relief supplies in sight.

They have been sleeping on the streets and no relief goods have reached their town yet.

Adelfa A, Julita

Katherine J, Calbiga, Samar

Katherine’s parents and one of her children witnessed the typhoon destroy the family home in Calbiga, along with the rice field that was her parents’ only livelihood.

My only wish is to help my parents build a house they can call a home again after Typhoon Yolanda.

Katherine J, Calbiga

Luz S, Hernani, Eastern Samar

Luz worked as a tailor in Manila while her sister’s family of six children in Hernani lost their home and their livelihood of fishing, copra, and weaving. One child was still missing when Luz wrote to iPrevail.

My main objective in the meantime is to get my sister and her children so I can look after them here and my nieces and nephews can continue their education.

Luz S, Hernani

Nenita P, Hernani, Eastern Samar

Nenita worked at a factory in Manila and had no news of her parents or siblings for days after the typhoon hit their home village. Everything they relied on for income was gone.

I want to help them pick up the pieces and start again. I want to make sure they have something to eat and they have a home.

Nenita P, Hernani

Rosalina C, Babatngon, Leyte

Rosalina’s sister and her family lived by the sea in Leyte, where fishing was their livelihood. Rosalina had not heard from them since November 2 and did not know whether they had survived.

I pray to the Lord that they are alive and safe and no harm has come upon them.

Rosalina C, Babatngon

Sherie A, Melgar, Oriental Mindoro

Flooding tore the roof and walls from Sherie’s home in Melgar and destroyed the rice crop her family depended on for survival.

Our home has been destroyed, the roof is gone and the walls are gone and the rice crops all demolished because of the flooding.

Sherie A, Melgar

Suferiano P, Silago, Southern Leyte

Suferiano’s wife and child sheltered with her parents in Silago through the storm. When his wife finally reached him by phone, she told him the family was safe, but their home and crops were destroyed.

We wish to get our home rebuilt, but we don’t have the means to buy the materials necessary to rebuild.

Suferiano P, Silago

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Foster Care Today: One Community, No Names

iPrevail never publishes the names or faces of foster children. In the summer of 2019, local business partners and volunteer fundraising sent 30 teenagers and 10 staff members from 5 Central Florida group homes to Busch Gardens, an escape room, and a water sports outing, the kind of ordinary summer most kids with parents take for granted. That is what the Friends of Foster Homes program looks like from the inside: no names, real kids, real days off from what they carry the rest of the year.