 |
| Ambassador Club members arrive at the empty shell which is Tacloban airport |
On the 30th of January this year members from the Ambassador Club Davao travelled to Tacloban on an aid mission to help the victims of the recent super typhoon. Through an internet based appeal to the other Ambassador Clubs worldwide and also local donations we were able to gather close to one million peso. We The Ambassador Club Davao were determined to travel to the disaster area and see that the money was put to good personally rather than hand our funds over to any third party.
Our members present on the trip were Our President Issac Robillo, Dr Roy Ferrer, Drs Jeanette and Antonio Ybiernas, Luis Bonguyan, Leonicio Villa-Abrille, Tony Ajero, and Scott Nimmo.
I had seen photos of the devastation on TV of course but nothing prepares you for seeing it first hand and hearing the stories of the people who lived through it. I spoke with a doctor, a nephrologist, who told me that he watched a group of his kidney disease patients die one by one because the hospital and the dialysis machines were destroyed and no help came in the first week.
A Barangay Captain { A local mayor } told me that as the waters rose his bodyguard punched a hole in the wooden ceiling, then managed to push both him and his wife to safety on the upper floor but then the bodyguard himself exhausted by his efforts was swept away and drowned.
Another Barangay Captain said that sixteen people sought refuge in his substantial house as the water rose, but the water surge rose to thirty feet, when the waters receded fourteen people had died in house including his own wife. These are just a few of the many human tragedies which unfolded during the typhoon, clearly there have been tens of thousands of deaths.
So lets be practical what was our mission? Firstly we aimed to help the children, you see during the typhoon the structure of many educational establishments were very badly damaged and their basic materials such as books and paper was destroyed. After consulting with local government officials we chose three day care centers to target for our aid. Over a two day period we distributed hundreds of small school bags to the children each containing notebooks, pencils, paper and other educational supplies plus one pair of flip flops and some candies for the kids. This way the children will have materials to help them start learning again, something to put on their feet, and a tasty treat to raise their spirits.
Secondly we assessed the damage to three children's day care centers, this was mainly to the roofs but other structures were damaged as well. We left enough cash with responsible individuals to start immediate repairs, once it can be verified that the initial repairs have been carried out properly then we can release more funds on a stage payment basis until the required repairs are complete. We cannot help everyone in Tacloban of course but the Ambassador Club can concentrate it's efforts on these three day care centers.
Is there hope for Tacloban? I would say most certainly there is, the international response has been nothing short of miraculous, I saw many NGO groups both great and small helping on the ground during our stay. Large Korean Army lorries and Korean heavy earth moving vehicles are visible on the roads manned by serious faced Korean soldiers. The Philippines armed forces are there in large numbers of course, as well as the American army.
I saw another charity called Cash For Work doing their job quietly in the background, they are paying a decent day's wage to anyone in the affected local areas who can help clear things and rebuild and in this way families have money for basics. People are lining up for food parcels donated from abroad so no one is going hungry.
What will pull Tacloban through in the end I am sure is the indomitable spirit of The Philippines people, many are happy and smiling and were glad to see us even in the face adversities which would surely floor lesser people. As the road side graffiti in my final photo says .... Never Give Up!
Finally the Ambassador Club Davao would like to express it's grateful thanks to everyone, especially those in other Ambassador Clubs abroad who who donated to this very worthy cause. The aid project goes on though and we will make every peso count!
Scott Nimmo
{ Special Project Director, Ambassador Club Davao. }
I took a great many photographs during my visit, a picture tells a thousand words so I have put a few of them below.
Click on any image to see it full size.
 |
| Philippines Air Force aid flight. |
 |
| The first thing you see is a wrecked luggage carousel. |
