Austrian, Swiss Aid Groups Help Philippine Typhoon Victims

Austrian and Swiss aid agencies are helping victims of typhoons Ketsana and Parma in the Philippines rebuild their homes and their lives, Inquirer.net reports. Caritas Australia, Caritas Switzerland and the Austrian Development Agency are jointly funding a reconstruction project that seeks to help repair more than 1,000 houses destroyed by the two strong typhoons that hit the Asian country in September 2009. The project will focus on the province of Benguet in northern Philippines and will be implemented by the country’s Citizens’ Disaster Response Center. Aside from construction materials, the project will also distribute non-food items and provide psychosocial services to some 5,000 families in the region.