Bailed out from the danger zone, 70 families start inching onto the vignette of hope since they got their new homes on April 25 at the Tzu Chi Great Love Village in barangay Cambitoon bordering Inabanga and Sagbayan towns.
Looking forward to their first month next week, the families could now dot the years to come one dream at a time.
The 70 families had to leave their previous homes in barangay Riverside, Inabanga after the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau declared area as highly vulnerable to landslide, flooding and liquefaction following the October 2013 earthquake.
Tzu Chi Foundation established a community in barangay Cambitoon where the 70 families could start again.
The turn-over ceremony for the project on April 25 gave them the opportunity to thanks Gov. Edgar Chatto, Inabanga Mayor Josephine Socorro Jumamoy, and Joven Uy of Tzu Chi Foundation-Bohol.
At the Tzu Chi Great Love Village, the children are provided with a playground, and a barangay hall has also been built inside the village.
To maintain their postal address, the village is still placed in the jurisdiction of barangay Riverside.
Chatto said the provincial government might consider acquiring the one-hectare property adjacent to the resettlement village where the 70 families can plant fruit trees for additional livelihood and for a reforestation project.
Tzu Chi Foundation constructed 50 two-bedroom houses, and 20 three-bedroom houses at a two-hectare property provided by the provincial government in the area, about two kilometers from where the families used to live.
The local government of Inabanga provided some materials, while Tzu Chi Foundation took charge of the construction of the house and site development.
At their new homes, the 70 families have better access to the highway.
Cambitoon is considered the farthest barangay in Inabanga and the travel from Tagbilaran City could be shorter through the Sagbayan boundary to the town.
The Great Love Village is the first resettlement project of Tzu Chi Foundation in Bohol in response to the need to relocate the families exposed to danger in barangay Riverside after the 2013 earthquake.
The two-bedroom units with an area of 25 square meters can accommodate a family of up to five members. The three-bedroom units with an area of 27 square meters can accommodate larger families.
Based on the survey conducted by Tzu Chi Foundation, 50 families need the two-bedroom units, while 20 need three-bedroom units.
The beneficiaries contributed the labor counterpart in the construction of their houses.
The project commenced with the capsule-laying ceremony on June 13 last year.
Ten months later, they had claimed the village their new home.