5 minutes with Jerome Lanit

Jerome Lanit is the Emergency Coordinator at CARE Philippines. We spoke to him at the World Urban Forum 9 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they were presented with their World Habitat Awards trophy for Post-Haiyan Self-Recovery Housing Programme.

How would you describe Post-Haiyan Self-Recovery Housing Programme in a few words?

Self-help and self-recovery followed by ownership of people, camaraderie and the commitment to fully recover through community spirit and wanting to work together as a whole community.

What motivates you in your role?

The biggest motivation is seeing people helping themselves. With this project almost 99% of the beneficiaries were really determined to recover early and immediately. That motivated us more to provide them with further assistance.

What is the single most important part of winning the World Habitat Awards?

Aside from the prize and being able to come to Kuala Lumpur, maybe the recognition that we have achieved. The project we implemented for post-Haiyan recovery was a major success and a lot of people have really benefitted.

Why do you think you won?

We won because we were able to implement the project effectively, efficiently and people are happy – they are living proof that the project was a success.

Tell us about your experience collecting your Award at the World Urban Forum.

This has been a very nice experience and moving forward we are more motivated to implement other shelter projects.