The Philippines: Joy and Aniano's story

Joy and her two daughters

Poverty housing in Manila

Joy and Aniano moved from the countryside to Manila in search of a better life in 1999. Like many thousands of migratory workers around the world, they simply swapped one form of poverty for another.

Home in the Baseco district was literally made up poles and plastic sheeting. Just when it seemed things could not get any worse, a fire tore through their area of Baseco on the night of the 11th January 2004. It took with it the Fajardo's home and 20,000 others.

Joy and Aniano were one of the first families to benefit from working with Habitat for Humanity on our Baseco project. With the help of corporate sponsors and individual donors, over a thousand families were re-housed in the first year – nothing fancy, just a simple, decent home with proper sanitation.

"I can't believe how different our lives are," Joy says. "When I first saw our new home, I just cried with happiness."

Aniano works as a bus driver and makes the small monthly repayments back to his local Habitat group. The couple have two young daughters now, but he still finds time to volunteer on building other houses in the community.

"I want others to have what we have," he explains. "I like the work and I like to see more and more houses being completed each month. Thank you to everyone that helped us!"

Find out more about Habitat for Humanity's work in The Philippines