By Robert Rutherford | Resource Development Officer
Immediately after the typhoon hit the Philippines nearly one year ago, Pamela traveled over 1,000 kilometers from Manila to Tacloban to search for her brother. It look her 3 days to make the journey, and then she searched the city for 4 agonizing days.
She recalls her arrival into the city after her long journey: “[The] strong smell of dead bodies. When we reached Tacloban, we started seeing dead bodies along the street, cars had been burned, houses with no roofs. Many places had been looted because people were hungry…Like a nuclear bomb, so damaged like Hiroshima.”
Typhoon Haiyan left widespread devastation affecting an estimated 16 million people. International Medical Corps was on the ground in the Philippines within 24 hours of the disaster, providing emergency care to help those who needed it most.
In the Philippines, our teams provided a comprehensive emergency response, delivering 14,625 health consultations in the first 6 weeks alone. Our First Responders were able to reach remote communities cut off from health care and basic services by rapidly implementing a network of mobile medical units.
That was a year ago and the work is far from done. Emergency relief helps in the beginning, but it takes a long time for a community to recover from such a disaster.
Pamela was one of the lucky ones—she did find her brother, alive and without major injuries. But the things she saw in Tacloban while searching for him made a huge impact on her. It was a bittersweet drive back to safety. “It was hard for me to leave…I was happy I found my brother, but sad that I had to leave others behind…I didn’t know what would happen to them. I gave them all the food we had from Manila, but it was not enough.” Pamela’s brave, challenging, and selfless acts didn’t end there.
When she saw that she could join International Medical Corps, she knew it was her opportunity to help her family and her province.Pamela now works with International Medical Corps, overseeing reconstruction and rehabilitation of health centers. She’s helped build a rural health unit and rehabilitate 10 primary health stations. 500 patients can be seen in these places each day.
To address the critical health care needs in the aftermath of the storm, International Medical Corps established four programs in the areas of: health; nutrition; mental health; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in schools. Through all of these programs, the goal has been to support underserved and rural communities as they “build back better.” The generous support of GlobalGiving and other donors is critical in helping us achieve this goal of both recovery and increased resilience to future natural disasters in the Philippines.
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