The Noah's Ark Project

My husband had been recently invited to attend a full day seminar on Corporate Network For Disaster Response (CNDR) which was held at The Shangri-La Hotel in Makati. I myself am interested in this and I made sure he bring home brochures so I can read up on this project, especially about The Noah's Ark Project.

Let me share to you my take-aways from the brochure he gave me:

VISION - Business sector prepared to deal with disasters affecting their company and the community at large.

MISSION - Help build the capacities of the business sector and Filipino communities to effectively prepare for and deal with disasters.

So what is the CNDR in the first place? The CNDR started in 1990 as a group coordinating the responses of the business sector for the Luzon earthquake (sidenote: I was a freshman student of UP Baguio during this earthquake and I know how daunting and traumatic it is to be at the center of this horrific event). Today, the network has evolved from an institution merely rendering community disaster response to delivering a more comprehensive disaster risk management approach to all its members and target communities.


One of their community-based disaster risk management projects is the Noah's Ark Project, a community-based flood preparedness project initiated by the Our Lighthouse Alliance. Noah's Ark aims to find a safe spot in a high risk area and develop it into an evacuation center where people will be safe and secure, and develop capacities of vulnerable communities to prepare for flooding.

In partnership with Ayala Foundation Inc and habitat for Humanity Philippines, the project was implemented on a pilot scale during a 4-month period in Barangay Malanday, Marikina City in 2010. As of 2012, the project has been implemented in 9 barangays and 1 city.

Personally, I am thankful for projects like this and for the people behind these endeavors. Natural calamities are getting more frequent and scarier these past years and to have awareness and preparedness is something we can at least do, even before disasters hit.

But then, we all need to pray more not only for our families, but for our nation. God is the ultimate source of protection and the only antidote to fear.