By Mike Smeltzer | Program Fellow, GlobalGiving
It’s been 8 months since the devastating floods that hit the Philippines in October 2015, and the community’s efforts to rebuild and move forward continue on. Typhoon Koppu, known locally as Typhoon Lando, left millions without electricity and forced nearly half a million people out of their homes. 1.08 meters of water drenched the region in only twenty four hours. But, the Filipino people are no strangers to floods.
The 2015 floods were not an isolated event, but rather an ongoing disaster the region constantly faces. Two of GlobalGiving’s partners, De La Salle University and International Disaster Volunteers(IDV), remain committed to providing relief and support for the local communities affected by flooding.
Since our last report, De La Salle University has joined with other local universities and schools from the ASEAN region to educate themselves on how to prevent future disasters. DLSU, with their partners, leads discussions on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management education and activities. These discussions focus on local and remote examples to help participants fully understand their project. Their project, Philippines Recovery Efforts Led by Local Experts, is almost to their funding goal, having already reached the 80% mark for their goal.
International Disaster Volunteers has also made a lot of progress in their efforts in the last few months. Their project, Help Filipino Communities Prepare for Disaster, had a setback in February when their funds ran out to complete the Banaba Livelihood and Evacuation Center outside Manila. But in April, IDV was fortunate to receive enough donations to complete the construction! As they report, “the evacuation center is now fully watertight at last! This is an amazing milestone for everyone involved, and one that we’re particularly delighted with.”
Even though IDV’s Evacuation Center may be watertight, and De La Salle University is making strides in preparing for future disasters, there is still work to be done. Typhoon Koppu is just one event in the ongoing problem in the Philippines. They can’t minimize the damage to the community or increase the responsiveness of their emergency services without your help! To give again to organizations like these, please check out GlobalGiving’s Philippine Flood Relief Fund.
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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