Two months ago, on Dec. 4, Super Typhoon Bopha made landfall in the Philippines packing winds of 160 mph.

It cut a swathe of destruction across the southern island of Mindanao, claimed the lives of over 1,000 people and affected over six million as it tracked across the Island.

Coconut and banana plantations were flattened and 216,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Today, more than 6,000 people in the worst affected provinces of Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley remain in evacuation centers, unable to go home.

Since Bopha struck, Lydia Inungam, 38, has lived with her family in a tent provided by the Red Cross in the grounds of an elementary school in New Bataan Municipality in the Province of Compostela Valley. Altogether, 90 families live on the site and most won't be returning home any time soon as their homes were totally destroyed.

Ten days ago Lydia gave birth to a daughter, her seventh child.

"I gave birth in a classroom because it was raining so hard and a storm was blowing outside," she said. "I have never given birth away from my home and I was panicking when the labor pains started, I was afraid to give birth inside the tent."

For Lydia, nursing a newborn in the tent city isn't easy.

"It gets really hot in here," she said. "At night the baby keeps on crying, she's not comfortable so we sleep at the classroom. We used to live in a cool breezy place by the river, unlike here."

A short walk away is the remains of Lydia's shattered village. Simple wood and bamboo huts lie crushed and splintered under the weight of fallen coconut palms.

Lydia had a narrow escape.

"We first knew something was really wrong when the coconut trees started to fall and the river started to flood," she explained.

"As we ran to the rice fields the trees were thumping down all around us. The wind was so strong we had to crawl to the school building."

Driving through village after village in Compostela Valley, the massive scale of humanitarian needs is clearly evident. Partially collapsed houses line the roads, patched up with tarpaulins that serve as roof coverings and temporary walls.

Tom Bamforth heads up the Shelter Cluster, an inter-agency coordination platform that brings together local and international humanitarian organizations that are responding to emergency shelter needs in Mindanao.

He feels that support from the international community has been woefully inadequate. So far, only 20% of families have received any help to carry out emergency repairs on their homes.

"Donors don't seem to view shelter as the humanitarian priority here," he said.

"Ninety five per cent of those affected are living in their damaged homes or makeshift shelters, but the funding shortfall for shelter repair kits means that 54,000 families may not receive the help they need."

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is one of the few agencies committed to providing tools, materials and technical training to families repairing their homes. Together with the Philippine Red Cross it also aims to help some whose houses were totally destroyed to rebuild from scratch.

"The current funding reality means that we can only provide a third of the 15,000 shelter repair kits that we included in our emergency appeal," explained Necephor Mghendi, the IFRC's head of operations in the Philippines.

In terms of providing help to build more permanent shelter for families whose homes were totally destroyed, the IFRC is only able to support 700 out of target number of 4,000 families.

Compared with other natural disasters of a similar scale, the donor response to Bopha has been muted, despite the Philippine government's appeal for international assistance.

Even though it ranks as one of the most disaster-prone countries in Asia, the Philippines is widely perceived by donors as a middle-income country, less deserving of humanitarian assistance than some of its neighbors.

The global financial crisis has also put the squeeze on humanitarian aid budgets and impacted levels of public giving to disasters overseas.

Bopha didn't get much traction in the international media. Competing against Syria for the headlines, the story appeared to drop off TV screens within days.