Philippines Typhoon And What You Can Do!

By Brandon Evans

Special To The Live Wire

 

As you may know, the typhoon that hit the Philippines was a category five and left a disastrous scene in its wake. The disaster in the Philippines was extremely extensive, with thousands dead and 3 million others displaced. People were affected in various parts of the region of Philippines; 44 provinces, and 55 cities. The violence in the Philippines including assault and looting has skyrocketed. Homes have been destroyed and people are starving, and homeless. The death toll, according to a CNN news report, has been raised to three thousand eight hundred and sixty one, and another twelve thousand five hundred and forty four are injured. On the bright side of things, six hundred and thirty two thousand pounds of relief aid have been delivered to the Philippines.

The question stands, how can you help as an individual? There are literally countless ways in which one can help out in the disaster effort. There are many online sites such as American and Canadian red cross that are currently helping in the disaster effort. Social networking has been the center pivot in turning the tide on the disaster that the typhoon has left. For example, Tumblr has spread the word of donations by putting a link in the Tumblr Logo, the home page you will see above your “dashboard.” Twitter has posted a link to a page that allows an individual to donate money to the relief effort by using the link “#RescuePH” to guide twitter users to the site.

Not only has social networking helped a lot, but many companies have donated their money to the relief effort. An example of that would be the Hudson Bay Company, who’s CEO decided to donate $200,000 dollars to the Red Cross, who will spend the money on the Philippines relief effort. Hudson Bay Company CEO has stated that the company has been a very large part of disaster efforts around the world and will continue to be a large part of the cause. (Insert History Of HBC Here)

So how can you help? You may want to join in the relief effort physically. In which case you can join a relief effort team that will deploy you to the Philippines, or anywhere for the matter. These relief teams will accept anyone with little to no training or skills in the matter of relief aid. Teams like these has missions to build houses, maintain education, and improve security by working around the clock. An example of relief teams would be the Young Pioneer Tours, a large group of people from China that has been deployed to the Philippines on separate missions to complete. The missions involve improvement of security and to build a certain number of houses by December 1^st.

You can also donate extremely easily with a click of a button on your computer or a tap on your phone. UNICEF has staff in the Philippines repositioned to provide emergency aid. Donations can always be made on line and through phone. Similarly, programs like the Food Program, Save The Children, and Doctors without Borders can be sent donations through the mail or by texting the word AID to 27200 to donate ten dollars. The ten dollars you donate by text will be added to your phone bill.