Barug Cebu

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BARUG CEBU INITIATIVE

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE SURVEY FORM FOR HOME REPAIR

What is Barug Cebu Initiative?
This online service was established by volunteers to make it easier for the victims of Typhoon Odette in Cebu to file for financial asistance for the repair of their damaged homes. The general observation are as follows:

Typhoon victims whose houses have sustained significant damage found it difficult to apply for housing assistance due to the time constraints, their personal availability, distance from the government office, and limited accessibility due to limited transportation options and blocked streets.
The government agencies and local government units have limited resources (not enough trained personnel and resources at this time.)

This Initiative will allow the victims to notify their Local Government Unit for assistance using their smartphones and Internet connections (where available).

The information that is collected will be shared to the local government agencies responsible for disbursing and delivering of financial reliefs.

Please note that this is an alternative method to the existing "Palista" and person-to-person methods and is not meant to replace it.

This initiative will run for a limited period only or until the local government agency and the infrastructure to support recovery efforts are restored to normal operations.

If you are not from Cebu, please contact the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office assigned in your area.
Who are eligible for the government financial assistance?
- This assistance is strictly for the typhoon Odette victims who are residents of barangays in the province of Cebu
- whose houses have been completely destroyed.
- whose houses suffered structural damage and requires major repairs to be considered habitable.
- who may not have the financial capability to perform the necessary repairs (case to case basis)
If you do not fall in any of the categories mentioned and you require financial assistance, please contact your barangay representatives.

If you already received financial assistance either from the government or from other organizations or your friends, please do not apply anymore. Be considerate and allow others the chance to avail of the limited financial assistance.
What is the application process?
- Register here for an online account.
- Log-in and fill up the online form. Submit the form when you are done.
- Our team of volunteers will review your application.
- If everything looks good, we will forward your information to the nearest government agency that is responsible for your area.
- Please note that we provide no guarantee at the speed of the the delivery at this time because the government is still the one responsible for acting on the requests. We are looking at other ways to make the delivery of the relief assistance more efficient. Right now, the government's process is to deliver the money personally. There are other methods we would like the government to use, but this has not been approved or discussed yet.
What are the requirements needed?
Application Requirements:
- An ID or any proof of residence document clearly showing your name and current address where your destroyed property is located.
- At least 3 pictures clearly showing the part of the house that has structural damage. Make sure your pictures are clear and taken during the day time. DO NOT send pictures of damaged furniture or appliances.
- A mobile number.
- An email address you can access from your smartphone.
- A bank account, GCash number or valid address where the financial assistance can be deposited or delivered.
What are the things to remember when applying online?
Important notes:
- The evaluation is based on first come, first serve basis and on the completeness of the requirements that you submitted.
- Submit one (1) application only per family. We will not process applications that have similar addresses.
- Your address should match the address written in the ID or document that you provided. If you do not have an ID, you may provide a valid utility bill, bank statement or any document that shows your name and address.
- We reserve the right to close the online application service if we have reached a certain quota or a certain threshold. This will allow us to properly evaluate the applications without overloading the website and the people who are manually reviewing the applications. Do note that the people doing the evaluation are volunteers.
- The maximum amount released to a damaged house per family will depend on what the local government has allocated. The current infromation we received from the government's public communications is between 1,000 to 5000 pesos.
- Once you submit your application, you will not be able to edit it anymore, so review your application before submitting it.
- We will implement anti-fraud methods to prevent people with malicious intent from gaming the system. Do not attempt to game the system by submitting applications that are fraudulent. By doing so, you are committing fraud which is punishable by law.
Is this a government sanctioned initiative?

Short answer is no. However, we are willing to share part of the information we collect to government agencies responsible for providing the financial relief assistance and to other third party partners and organizations who may want to assist in the relief delivery and operations. Informations that we intend to share may depend on the role of the organization is playing during the relief operations. For example, if the organization is doing relief goods to the general public which does not require personal details of the victim, iHelp will provide only the general statistics or the number of victims per barangay or municipality that have been determined to require relief assistance. If an organization or a government agency is performing cash relief disbursements which would normally require some personal information, then iHelp will share some personal information to that agency.
If your company, agency or organization is willing to assist those in need, you can request for access to the collected data , but we leave it to you to contact the local barangays to coordinate your relief assistance activities. Please contact us at customercare@ihelp.ph

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Typhoon Odette Victim

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DISCLAIMER

The iHelp Initiative's main objective is to improve the response time of the disaster recovery teams in delivering financial relief assistance to those who need it by providing the disaster recovery teams with the information collected from the victims of the disaster.
The Initiative is not responsible for distributing the financial assistance. It only provides an alternative channel for victims to let their barangays and Local Government Units (LGU) know that they need assistance.
The Initiative does not provide any guarantee on the relief assistance. Only the LGUs have that authority and decision making capacity
If you need emergency assistance, or in need of medical help, please contact your nearest local emergency response team immediately.
If your request for financial assistance is not answered or is denied, we encourage you to contact your nearest barangay office.

iHelp is a modular, Internet based service platform that can be used by the disaster recovery organizations and volunteers to support the early stages of delivering humanitarian services after a natural disaster or calamity where Internet service is available.

The tool is designed to be deployed where there is limited manpower available to perform ocular inspections of damaged areas and where wireless Internet access is available. Disaster victims who can get access to wireless Internet services would be able to start filing for much needed assistance without waiting for an actual person to assist them.

The platform is hosted and maintained by a virtual organization of volunteers. During emergencies, the virtual organization forms a bigger group spanning different regions and even involving other countries. Volunteers with special skills observe and collect data from individuals and disaster recovery organizations at ground zero that will be used to quickly create the right tools and processes that can be used by disaster recovery personnel and organizations to augment their logistics and data gathering capability.

The iHelp Team believes in the premise that if disaster recovery agencies and organizations have real-time information coming from the field, they can make quick and better decisions which speeds up the delivery of humanitarian services where it is most needed.

The main objectives of iHelp are:

To make it easier for disaster victims to seek assistance where wireless communications is available.
To provide a safe and speedy delivery of humanitarian services to all those who need it without any bias.
To provide the capability to rapidly collect field data and share progress and monitoring reports in near-real-time among the organizations involved in the recovery efforts so that their leaders can rapidly make decisions.

The platform relies on the following:

Wireless mobile telecom networks which is the backbone in delivering mobile centric services during disasters.
Software development and web hosting services that create and hosts the online services.
Partnerships with disaster recovery organizations and humanitarian groups for the delivery of the humanitarian services

For more information, please write to customercare@ihelp.ph

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