By Sylvia Lorenzini | Program Team Intern
Hi GlobalGivers,
In the Philippines, communities may never know when disaster will strike again. On average, eight to nine typhoons hit the Philippines each year, causing massive amounts of flooding and damage. Individuals must constantly recover from tragedy and are in need of more and more relief efforts. Luckily, there are passionate organizations more than willing to help. Thanks to your donations, GlobalGiving has been able to give funds to projects focused on rebuilding communities, distributing supplies to children and families, and preparing for future disasters. Here are some updates from these organizations:
De La Salle University, a university in the Philippines, prides itself on using local experts to lead recovery efforts (hence its project name, “Philippines Recovery Efforts Led By Local Experts”). Recently, De La Salle University worked to construct new projects based on consultations from both their internal and external partners at the center in emergency relief operations. After the consultations, the university found that instead of having projects focus on recovery relief, they should focus more on disaster preparation and management. After thorough research and discussion, this approach was found to be more effective. In the latest project report, the university announced some future plans for this project. These plans include continued capacity building, including building an emergency response team for the area. This team will include rescue swimmers and divers, as well as a mountain rescue team. We hope you are all looking forward to their future efforts as much as we are!
Asia America Initiative’s project “Provide Relief to 5000 Families In Typhoon Bopha” is working with local groups to provide relief for survivors of the on-going disasters sparked by climate change in this region. Recently, Asia America Initiative distributed school books and readers to middle schools and high schools, in order for the students to continue having a “basic education” during these disasters. To date, the organization has been able to provide nearly 100,000 books! Unfortunately, the new typhoon season sprung again in mid-May, and students started school the first week of June. Asia America Initiative is working tirelessly to provide a safe environment for the students, but there is still more work to be done.
International Disaster Volunteers (IDV) highlighted, in their latest report, one of the IDV rescue team volunteers named Maria. She, like many of the other volunteers, needed to learn basic first aid in order to help her community when disaster strikes again. Through IDV’s project “Help Filipino Communities Prepare for Disasters”, Maria and the other volunteers received an intense two day course in first aid. Through this course, led by army personnel, attendees practiced and learned CPR, how to respond to spinal cord injuries and broken bones, how to navigate through smoke, etc. Thanks to your generous donations, IDV on-the-ground volunteers are better prepared to deal with health issues in the face of tragedy. IDV hopes to train even more volunteers in first aid and even supply first aid kits and life vests in the future. All of this cannot be done without your support.
Because of the on-going nature of natural disasters in the Philippines, your continued support is more important than ever before. We may never know when a disaster is about to strike, and these organizations must always be prepared to face future typhoons, flooding, and more. We may not know what lies ahead in the Philippines, but all of the progress so far would not have been possible without you. Thank you for your continued passion and support!
Links:
By Emily Pedano | Program Team Intern
By Emily Pedano | Project Team Intern
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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When a disaster strikes, recovery efforts led by people who live and work in affected communities are often overlooked and underfunded. GlobalGiving is changing this reality. Since 2004, we've been shifting decision-making power to crises-affected communities through trust-based grantmaking and support.
We make it easy, quick, and safe to support people on the ground who understand needs in their communities better than anyone else.
They were there long before the news cameras arrived, and they’ll be there long after the cameras leave. They know how to make their communities more resilient to future disasters, and they’re already hard at work. GlobalGiving puts donations and grants directly into their hands. Because the status quo—which gives the vast majority of funding to a few large organizations—doesn’t make sense.
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