Ongoing Yolanda Relief Work

While I have left the Philippines, I was struck by a news story that flashed before me at the ferry terminal in Ormoc: "Corpses are still being recovered in Tacloban." It was four months after Super Typhoon Yolanda blasted through Tacloban City and bodies were still being found and people were still lining up for rice and food rations.

Feet dangling from the top of a jeepney on the way home from work.
© 2014 Andrea Rip

Tacloban, the area hardest hit by Yolanda, is All Hands' next area of concentration. When I left, there was a small group of six to eight people setting up a new base there and getting started on a major neighborhood rebuild project. With a number of projects to be completed between Ormoc and Kananga, All Hands was following through on their commitments to the area I served in before moving everyone to Tacloban.

While parts of the Island Leyte are getting electricity, each home and business has to pay to reconnect to the lines - and with little business income after the storm, this can be impossible for many. Depending on the size of the home, it could be P400 (~$10USD), but too much for many on the Island.

Despite rainy season's end at the beginning of February, mid-March tropical storms and a small typhoon have dampened a week's worth of work. When people are living in temporary cardboard, plywood, tarpaulin, and tin huts, the extra and unseasonable rain and wind makes for difficult circumstances. One of All Hands' teams in the mountains was virtually rained out of a weeks worth of work in their wind torn tents with battered equipment.

This is the reality of working in the Philippines and serves as a reminder to stay aware of people who need help: Please do not forget the Philippines.

A sign I spotted in Ormoc: "Ormoc is now HOPEFUL and We are THANKFUL
to YOU generous PEOPLE."
© 2014 Andrea Rip

Yolanda was a wicked and destructive storm and the work is far from over. There is so much work to be done yet - so many homes (temporary and permanent) to be built, unsafe structures to be taken down, people who need food, and families who need their livelihood back. My All Hands donation site is closed now, but here are several ways you can still donate if you are able:

• www.world renew.net
• www.hands.org
• www.doctorswithoutborder.org
• or your favorite international aid organization (Red Cross, World Health Organization, UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision, etc).

A recent update (with a video) from All Hands puts some numbers to the Project:
"We established Project Leyte in late November, and since then we have assisted 2,998 families, and 22,571 people total, in the recovery...we have relied on 6,550 days of donated labor by 286 volunteers from 32 countries around the world."

One of the women who joined Project Leyte, Chloe "Crutches" Lyttle, with her 19 Toes Productions, put together a beautiful video that summarizes what our Project looked like: Hard work, cute kids, and occasionally a little play.

Riding back from work on the back of a jeepney.
Photo Credit: René Serrano

I returned grateful for the work I was able to contribute in the Philippines; amazed at the hard working, peculiar, and beautiful people who were part of this experience; simply incredulous at the amount of resilience and number of smiles I saw from the Filipino people; relieved that I returned without major injury; and without words to describe the thankfulness I have for all those of you who supported my trip with their money, positive thoughts, and their prayers.

Amen!