On Friday, 08 November 2013, the biggest typhoon in the recorded history of the world made a landfall in the central part of the Philippines. Not having been able to fully recover yet from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that happened just a few weeks into October, the towns and cities that form the Visayas islands had to face yet another terrible disaster in the form of 20-feet storm surges that stretched 8-16 kilometres inland, heavy winds that scattered roofs and bodies and means of livelihood, and torrential rain.
Many of the people in the islands of Leyte and Samar and the Panay islands (including, but not limited to, Aklan, Iloilo, Negros, etc) have already been found and accounted for, but all of them are in need of potable water, food, and clothing – and help is arriving slowly; ports, after all, are closed due to damage. Still many others are lost, and a huge number of those who are missing are feared dead. It is estimated that in Tacloban City alone, 10,000 have perished.
Why am I writing this? I’m writing this because I’m asking for help. I’m one voice in the internet, and the internet is full of people who have voices – oftentimes a lot louder than mine, but I want to help out through one of the ways I know how. Here.
If you want to help out, here are a few ways you can.
For the international community:
Donations via the Philippine Red Cross (including PayPal)
Donations via UNICEF Philippines
Donations via CARE Australia
Donations via World Vision
Donations via ANCOP Foundation USA
If you’re in the Philippines, here’s what you can do:
Text donations via Globe
Air21 pick-up
And most NGOs and schools have their own drives to collect goods/money that will be sent to the people in Central Visayas
I may not know much, but here’s what I’m sure of – that whatever help we offer will come a long way.
This is such an important issue for me because of two things mainly. First, because my dad has family over there (and they own a school for gradeschoolers) that he still hasn’t been able to keep in touch with (our family is hoping it’s just because of the lack of communication lines), and second, because the damage is so devastating that authorities say it will take up to three months to restore just the electricity. It may seem like the most shallow thing ever, but I’m a Christmas kid, and I think that you should be at your happiest during Christmas. With the deaths and the missing and the constant fear of running out of either will or resources to live, this Christmas will probably not be their happiest, and neither will it probably be mine’s, but realizing that people everywhere are willing to help the people in the Visayas might be enough to give them – and me -hope. Hope may not be much, but it’s going to be a great start.
So please, please donate. Even a dollar will go a long way. We – they – (right now it’s all just a matter of semantics honestly, everyone’s affected by it in various ways) will bounce back. That, after all, is human nature; but we’ll need all the help we can get.
Of perpetual finds 