By: Samantha Lisay, Architect and Designer, Build Change-Philippines One of my first projects with Build Change was to design forecast-based financing resources for the German and Philippine Red Cross. The aim of forecast-based financing is to use science or forecast models to identify where to give aid even before a disaster strikes. This specific project focused on lessening the damage to vulnerable housing caused by typhoons by temporarily strengthening them 2-3 days before the forecasted storm. Build Change was tasked with coming up with resources such as an assessment form, shelter strengthening guide, and a post-disaster assessment form to make this rapid strengthening response possible. Designing Material Resources As Build Change’s resident designer, I quickly jumped into creating these materials, only to realize that this was not an ordinary design challenge. When designing the assessment form, we took into consideration … Read More
Resilient Housing in the Philippines, in the Era of COVID-19
By: Jessica Stanford, Country Director-Philippines The COVID-19 pandemic is without doubt an unprecedented event, impacting lives, communities and economies around the world. As governments and nations work together to implement prevention, containment and mitigation measures, families from California to metro Manila are instructed to #stayhome, #shelterinplace to help curb the worst of this public health crisis. But what if you’re one of the 1.2 billion people who live in substandard housing today? What if you’re a low-income household that depends on daily wage income now threatened by changing dynamics? How will this impact your capacity to shelter, safely in your home? The World Bank estimates that three billion people will live in substandard housing by 2030. In the Philippines alone, 70 million people live in substandard housing, and this is projected to grow to 113 million people by 2030. Housing … Read More
Safety Starts at Home: An Update from Build Change Regarding COVID-19
Dear Friends of Build Change, With millions in self-isolation or quarantined around the globe, homes are the front line in the battle against COVID-19. More than perhaps ever before, our homes are the center of our lives, and our retreats (forced or not) from an uncertain world. My hope is that wherever your home is, it is a place where you feel safe riding out this disaster. I know that I am increasingly grateful every day for a safe home, for a yard my son can play in, for our health, and for a grocery store where I can still buy food (if not toilet paper). But I am also reminded of the many people worldwide for whom self-isolation is even more daunting than it is in many parts of the United States, because of unsafe construction. If you don’t … Read More
TED TALK – DURABLE HOUSING FOR A RESILIENT FUTURE
Build Change CEO Delivers Vision of Housing Resilience at TED Conference
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 25 — Dr. Elizabeth Hausler, Founder and CEO of Build Change, delivered an impassioned TED Talk to the organization’s “We the Future” conference in New York, joining thousands of other social entrepreneurs and activists in calling for a renewed commitment to building housing resilience and battling poverty in the developing world. The marquis event at the TED World Theater in Manhattan celebrated the 73rd annual opening session of the United Nations General Assembly. “It’s time we treat unsafe housing as the global epidemic that it is,” Hausler said. “It’s time to strengthen every building just like we would vaccinate every child in a public health emergency.” Around the world, natural disasters destroy thousands of lives and erase decades of economic gains each year. These outcomes are undeniably devastating and completely preventable, Dr. Hausler said, and substandard housing … Read More