LAMBUNAO, Iloilo ? ?This is a new life, a new hope for us.?

This was how Judith Loreno felt on Friday as she received the key to a brand new house that will be her family?s new home in Pandan village in this town, about 33 kilometers north of Iloilo City.

In tears, Loreno recalled that she lost her 14-year-old daughter more than a year ago when rampaging floodwaters brought by Typhoon ?Frank? swept their house on June 21, 2008.

Her house was among the 316 destroyed in 28 villages mostly along the riverbanks.

The housing project, funded by the Italian government through the Italian Cooperation Agency, was turned over to the beneficiaries in simple ceremonies attended by town officials led by Mayor Reynor Gonzales, the beneficiaries and the representatives of the Italian agency.

The housing project, composed of 70 concrete housing units, each measuring 25 square meters with two bedrooms and a toilet, stands on a 7-hectare site provided by the local government, while the labor component was funded by Iloilo Representative Arthur Defensor.

Sergio Quattrocchi, project manager of Italian Cooperation Agency, said they have donated 180 housing units including 30 in Janiuay town and 80 in Iloilo City. Last year, the Italian government also donated 180 houses to victims of Typhoon ?Reming? in Albay.

The beneficiaries in Lambunao were mostly poor settlers along riverbanks and earned a living as farmers.

?We are so grateful. Our children can finally be settled,? Jackelyn Agudes, 33, told the Inquirer.

Agudes has three children aged 7-12 and her husband works as a farmer and carpenter in Bonbon Village where they previously lived.

Mayor Gonzales said the local government would provide livelihood centers in the housing project to help the families who have relocated in the area, which was far from their farms.