On November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Yolanda (known locally as Haiyan) made landfall in the Philippines. Final destruction reports of loss of human life and property from this storm were extremely high, in a country that is accustomed to typhoons, and knows how to prepare.

In response to this disaster, we formed a working group with four local RPCVs, three of whom who served in the Philippines, and with Wisconsin Microfinance, to spread the word within the Peace Corps community.

Wisconsin Microfinance is a UW-Madison student-founded organization that has experience in fundraising for microloan projects. Their work began with Haiti after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, which registered a devastating 7.0 on the Richter scale. They developed a model of finding a reliable person who could accept donations and funnel it in small $50-$150 microloans to community members, mostly women, and track and report on success. They have had 100% loan repayment success in Haiti, and we expect to see the same results with Philippines loans.

A contract was signed with VICTO, a Philippines-based microcredit organization, that will accept donation dollars, and the Bohol Community Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Bohol CMPC) of Loay, Bohol, Philippines to ensure effective use of your donation dollars.