Please help the Filipino people in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)

Dear friends,

My heart is breaking.  I have had to stop watching the news in the wake of the recent disaster in the Philippines.  The scenes on the news are devastating.

As you may or may not know, I have recently returned from 14 months in the Philippines.  The devastating scenes remind me of the beautiful country I worked in, but more importantly, the amazing people I worked with while I was there.

It is hard to describe the spirit of the Filipino people but it is there in such abundance.  The news footage of people begging for water with tears streaming down their faces and pain in their eyes is so far removed from the smiling faces and kind eyes of the people and communities I worked with.

I worked in agriculture in rural parts of the Philippines, where people often lived in houses made of sticks and corrugated iron.  Where people had little but always had genuine smiles on their faces. The farmers I worked with were a pleasure to work with. Even the ones that didn't have any English would still try and converse with us in the paddy fields. Their resilience was beyond reproach.

Not only do the people of Tacloban and other affected areas have to suffer the immediate effects of the the typhoon but research from IRRI (Drs. Nyo Me Thwe and Grant Singleton) has shown that rodent outbreaks are closely linked to extreme climatic events. So the effects of this typhoon will also be potentially devastating in the future with severe rodent outbreaks causing lots of crop damage and disease.

I was hoping you could  help in any way you can? A little goes a long long way in South East Asia.  On the Philippines Red Cross website you can donate as little as 100 pesos (~€1.70) or 200 pesos (~€5.00) and I also heard that other Irish based charities like Oxfam and Concern are running their own campaigns. The cliche "every little helps" is especially true here as in the developing world €5 can buy a lot of clean water and rice to feed devastated families. Please help and share!

Regards

Niamh



  


Here are links two more places to donate to.

€ http://www.mycharity.ie/event/philippines_relief/ 
£ http://www.justgiving.com/PhilippinesRelief