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).
The 6th Ghana-West Africa Business Excellence Awards’ recently recognised 60 top companies and individuals from all aspects of the business sector in Ghana and other countries of West Africa. Congratulations to the SMEC team in Ghana who were awarded Project Management Consultancy of the Year!
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”.
Specialists from SMEC’s Water Resources team will deliver technical presentations at the 2023 Floodplain Management Australia National Conference in Sydney. The annual event has been hosted by the FMA for over 50 years, and is the most esteemed flood risk management forum of its kind in Australia.