A tattered blue tarpaulin is strewn over the corrugated metal sheets serving as a roof to a makeshift home that provides the only shelter against the elements for a family of five in the Philippines.

Every night Jackie’s family – her husband and three children aged six, nine and 12 – lay out their ‘mattresses’; cardboard boxes that serve as the only cushioning against the stony mud floor in the slums on the outskirts of the parish of Tandang Sora, in Quezon City.

Whenever rainwater floods the area, the flimsy homes of Jackie, 39, and her neighbours are swept away and they have to start again from scratch.

But Sr Annie Catania, a tireless Maltese Dorothean nun, is hoping to change the fortunes of five families by raising enough money to build them a brick room each, providing them with a modicum of comfort and permanency.

Every year, Sr Annie, who together with the other sisters of St Dorothy does missionary work in the Philippines, returns to tap people’s generosity and collect money for the destitute.

This time she needs to raise €15,000 to build these five rooms, which will incorporate a toilet inside. While labour is cheap, buying bricks and cement comes at a cost. Eventually, the nuns would like to furnish these rooms, but in the meantime this project is the first step to securing these families’ safety.

There is an added sense of urgency in their mission as the government has warned these families they will be forcibly removed from the area unless they buy the land, but it has offered them no alternative home.

Fortunately, the mayor has already promised to provide the nuns with a stretch of land in the area for this project.

Showing photos of the families’ abject poverty, Sr Annie describes how these people usually wash themselves with their clothes on using a bucket of water they would have bought for about 50c and then letting the sun dry them out.

There are no jobs for them, but occasionally Jackie’s husband lands some work in construction and gets paid €2.

“Our dogs are living in better conditions than these people,” Sr Annie said.

The nuns have kept up the feeding project created last year for malnourished Filipino children and their mothers who trudge to their parish of Tandang Sora, to eat their only warm, healthy meal of the day.

In a bid to raise some funds Sr Annie is organising a bazaar at St Dorothy’s Convent, in Mdina, at weekends – starting from next week until the end of April between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturdays and from 2 to 8 p.m. on Sundays – where she will be selling handmade items by these mothers.

A fundraising brunch will also be held at Le Meridien Hotel, St Julian’s, on Thursday from 9 a.m. onwards. The cost is €10. To book, call 9906 3820 or 2143 1367.

Those who wish to help Sr Annie with her projects in the Philippines can send a donation to the Bank of Valletta account 18208305010 or post a cheque to St Dorothy’s Convent, Mdina Road, Żebbuġ.