The powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone struck last December, packing winds of up to 250 kilometres per hour, and leaving tens of thousands of families without electricity, water, food, and shelter.
Among the worst affected were the central Philippines provinces of Bohol and Cebu—home to Cherryl Mendoza and Cyril Gumapac, junior architects at SMEC. Cherryl’s family residence was severely damaged, while Cyril, who was in Manila when the calamity struck, rushed to check on his parents afterwards to find their home destroyed.
The roof of Cherryl’s family residence in Cebu damaged by Typhoon Rai.
Cyril, junior architect at SMEC, pictured outside his parents’ totally destroyed house in Bohol in Typhoon Rai’s aftermath.
In line with SMEC’s policy to assist employees affected by natural disasters, our corporate social responsibility committee in Southeast Asia acted swiftly to disburse urgent financial aid to repair electrical and structural damage to Cherryl’s family residence and to buy construction materials to help rebuild Cyril’s family house.
The emergency cash assistance for Cherryl and Cyril was organised by SMEC’s Corporate Social Responsibility committee in Southeast Asia. Also present at the virtual turnover ceremony were Adrian Mendoza (CSR Representative Philippines), Ricardo Yuzon Jr (Country Manager SMEC Philippines), Ferdinand Lucero (SMEC SEA CSR Committee Secretariat) and Phillip San Jose (SEA CSR Committee Chairperson).
SMEC has been engaged by the Ministry of Water & Environment of Uganda to undertake design review and construction supervision for critical water projects across Namasale, Koboko, Kaliro-Namungalwe and Rukungiri.
The Australian and NSW Governments are investing in the widening and upgrade of the section of Maitland Road between Newcastle Inner City Bypass and Hexham Bridge known as ‘Hexham Straight’.
Habibie Razak, Regional Manager for SMEC Indonesia, recently presented SMEC’s expertise on quantity surveying to the 2023 ASEAN Quantity Surveying Association (AQSA) Congress. The event was held in Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia on 16-17 May 2023. The theme of this year’s congress was “Envisioning Sustainability and Digitalisation in ASEAN Construction Industry”.