Recently, Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) hit our country. While we here in Manila may have been unscathed, what has been surfacing just now over the internet and from the media is giving us a rather bleak situation in the Visayas, most especially the eastern portions of the region. It breaks my heart to see Tacloban in the news—it’s a city I’ve visited before that has friendly people and much progress. But now, I only see photos of debris and corpses buried under the mud.
Relief operations, most notably from the Red Cross, have already been mobilized, but the damage is so widespread that thousands, if not millions, have been affected. Apart from entire cities and towns being destroyed, more than a thousand have been recorded to be dead, and the death toll is expected to rise as more isolated towns are heard from.
That being said, indulge me as I make an appeal to help our country, especially to those who read this blog from outside the Philippines. We need your help, so we can rise and rebuild.
I’ve found a worthy cause at Waves for Water. Instead of donating bulky bottled water, they are providing compact, economical filtration systems that could process as many as one million gallons per filter. And being a registered organization in the United States, Waves for Water accepts donations from anywhere in the world through credit and debit cards.
Please donate to Waves for Water and help my fellowmen who currently have no access to potable water. Here’s the link: www.wavesforwater.org/project/typhoon-hiayan.
For other ways to help Yolanda victims, check out this Tumblr post by Ros Juan.