Category: Humanitarian Aid

CNN Heroes team up for Philippines typhoon relief

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Efren Penaflorida, 2009 CNN Hero of the Year, was grateful when Typhoon Haiyan bypassed his home in Cavite City, Philippines. But when he saw the devastation in other areas of the country, he wanted to do all he could to help his fellow Filipinos.

Penaflorida immediately began collecting donations at his mobile “pushcart classrooms,” which he uses to educate poor children in the country. But he wanted to do more.

So he reached halfway around the world to Doc Hendley, a North Carolina clean-water activist who had also been honored as a top 10 CNN Hero in 2009. After a disaster strikes, access to clean water is vital to help prevent the spread of disease. Hendley, who has responded to humanitarian crises in Darfur, Haiti and Syria, had just started assessing how his nonprofit, Wine to Water, might help the Philippines when he received Penaflorida’s e-mail.

“I was already thinking that maybe I should go, ” Hendley said. “When he shot me the e-mail … he sealed the deal. “Our organization depends on relationships with people on the ground … (and) what better relationship than with Efren?”

Soon, Hendley was on a flight to the Philippines with hundreds of water filters in tow. Penaflorida picked him up at the airport in Manila. “That was a long trip from the U.S. to the Philippines … and he has put out his own money and resources to help us,” Penaflorida said. “We were both excited, seeing each other.”

The next day, both men helped volunteers assemble the filters and pack 120,000 meals donated by Stop Hunger Now, one of Hendley’s partner organizations. Then they headed to Tacloban, in the heart of the devastated area, to deliver the filters.

“When we got to the communities, they were asking for help,” he said. “When Doc presented them with filters, I saw hope in their eyes.”

They distributed 2,000 filters by the end of the week. Because each filter can provide enough clean water for 10 people, and because each will last for 10 years, Hendley estimates that at least 20,000 people will benefit.

He originally planned to return home for the Thanksgiving holiday, but he now intends to stay until early December. “I couldn’t be home for a nice Thanksgiving dinner and pretend like nothing happened,” he said. “There’s too much we have to do.”

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CNN Heroes team up for Philippines typhoon relief – Part 2

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Other CNN Heroes are also responding to help those affected by the typhoon:

Robin Lim, the American-born midwife named CNN Hero of the Year in 2011, has strong ties to the Philippines; her mother was Filipino. So after the storm, she brought food and medical supplies. She has also been working with local clinics to provide assistance to pregnant women, new mothers and young children.

Dr. Laura Stachel, a 2013 Top 10 Hero, has also provided Lim with one of five “solar suitcases” that she has donated to the relief effort. These portable kits provide essential power to medical clinics.

Team Rubicon, a group of military veterans that responds to natural disasters, was on the ground within days of the storm. The group, founded by 2012 CNN Hero Jake Wood, has 43 volunteers in the Philippines providing medical care, opening supply lines and helping repair a field hospital in an area west of Tacloban.

Evans Wadongo, a Top 10 CNN Hero in 2010, is also hoping to partner with Penaflorida. Although Wadongo normally distributes his solar-powered lanterns to rural communities in Africa, he has launched an online campaign to raise funds so he can assist Filipinos more than 5,000 miles away.

[CNN]

On World AIDS Day December 1

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Since it was founded in 2002, the Global Fund has been a leader in the world’s successful response to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. All told, its efforts have saved nearly 9 million lives. The Global Fund also plays a key role in helping developing countries change the course of these three epidemics.

For example, when people have early access to HIV testing and treatment, they not only save their own lives but they dramatically reduce their chances of infecting others. Moreover, a simple preventive procedure like voluntary medical male circumcision lowers a man’s chance of acquiring HIV — and potentially transmitting it to his partner — by about 60%. Overall, effective prevention and treatment programs have helped reduce new HIV infections by a third since 2001.

That last number is crucial, because preventing new HIV infections is absolutely essential to ending AIDS. Developing a vaccine to prevent HIV remains critical, and scientific researchers are achieving exciting breakthroughs. In the meantime, we need to develop new technologies that women can use to protect themselves. Condoms are a great way to prevent the spread of HIV, but they require the cooperation of both partners.

The Global Fund doesn’t just provide money for pills and other health products. It channels its resources into training new generations of doctors, nurses, and health care workers. It helps developing countries build stronger health systems. This approach guarantees that the money donors invest in the Global Fund has a long-term impact on overall health and quality of life in dozens of countries.

Put simply: The Global Fund isn’t just one of the kindest things people have ever done for each other — it’s also one of the smartest investments the world has ever made.

[Read Bill Gates full opinion piece

US veterans fill their own void delivering aid to Philippines

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Members of Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization staffed by US veterans, are using their military skills in the Philippines — and finding the camaraderie they miss in the process. The organization isn’t just lending a crucial role in helping aid the ravaged Tacloban region, harnessing the organizational training and skills learned by service men and women in war zones. It’s also filling a void for many of them who miss the intense bonds and clear mission of the military.

The group’s co-founder, Jacob Wood, is a square-jawed Iowa native who graduated college with a business degree and promptly enlisted in the Marine Corps. After four years in the military, including a deployment to Iraq in 2007, and another to Afghanistan in 2008, Wood got out. Then came the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, when he and his Team Rubicon co-founder William McNulty, also a Marine, went down to aid in disaster relief. While working on the ground, they realized that veterans have many of the skills to help in relief efforts. From that first mission in Haiti, the organization has continued to grow to its current roster of more than 12,000 volunteers.

Team Rubicon has “all the best parts of the US military — mission, purpose, camaraderie — without the bad parts, like having to shave,” says Peter Meijer, a former US Army medic.

Volunteers bring in all their own water and food, usually favoring freeze-dried supplies or the specially packaged military food known as Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs. The key is to be self-sufficient, Meijer says. “The first rule of disaster response is don’t be a victim,” he says. Otherwise, “you’re just taking aid away from those who need it.”

In Manila, the presence of military veterans who are now civilians, as well as Team Rubicon’s visibility around the centers of military operation, have riled some in the aid community, who have criticized the group for hogging the spotlight. Some of the groups also complain of being bumped from flights.

But Wood defends his organization, saying that if team members come on strong, it is because “veterans are used to making difficult decisions in difficult situations.”

Indeed, part of Rubicon’s success, Wood argues, is knowing how the military works and what it needs, which comes in handy during large disasters in which US troops are brought in.  This is particularly important since the US military controls the flights that run to the disaster zones— flights which move aid shipments, vehicles, and volunteers.

“It really helps that we’re familiar with the chain of command,” Meijer says.

[Christian Science Monitor]

UK increases hands-on aid to the Philippines

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The British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious has arrived in the Philippines to distribute relief aid for victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

The helicopter and commando carrier takes over from HMS Daring which has been distributing aid and assisting villagers in remote communities on islands to the north east of Panay for the past week.

Helicopters are planning to survey the remote islands in the west of the country before beginning aid distribution on Tuesday. The crew will use helicopters to deliver aid to people who are stuck in isolated areas where aid has not yet arrived.

The arrival of the HMS Illustrious reportedly has the capacity to increase aid ten-fold to the Philippines.

[BBC]

Philippines struggles to keep typhoon aid and donations graft-free

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As millions of dollars pour in for more than four million left homeless by Typhoon Haiyan in the central Philippines, authorities are grappling with a familiar problem – how to stop fraudulent claims and prevent greedy politicians taking advantage.

Nearly $298 million in cash and relief goods have so far been pledged by countries and donor groups to an overwhelmed government that was criticized for its slow response in the first few days after disaster struck.

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have committed a total of more than $1 billion in grants and emergency loans to support reconstruction and relief efforts.

Add to that the millions of pesos raised by the private sector, with Filipinos working across the globe gathering friends for fund-raising activities, and you have a lucrative target for scammers and unscrupulous public officials in one of the most corrupt countries in East Asia. (The Philippines comes in at 105 out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.)

This week, Manila launched an online portal called FAiTH to provide information on donations in answer to concerns that aid money might once again end up lining pockets of local officials.

[Reuters]

US military aid toward Philippine typhoon relief

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Two weeks ago, the Marine Corps general in charge of U.S. military aid efforts for victims of Typhoon Haiyan, Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, asked the Pentagon to urgently send a number of amphibious warships to the Philippines.

The USS George Washington was the first to arrive, and two amphibious ships arrive there Wednesday, Navy officials say. The USS Ashland and the USS Germantown can get closer to the storm-ravaged areas than the massive aircraft carrier, and they have a variety of helicopters, small boats, trucks, equipment to produce potable water and other supplies needed in the relief effort.

The two ships picked up 900 Marines in Okinawa to aid in the relief efforts.

A third ship, the USS Freedom, is also carrying supplies from Singapore, the Navy said.

[CNN]

Military aid a backdoor means of getting the U.S. back into Philippines bases?

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Jonah Blank, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and a former policy director for South and Southeast Asia on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested in USA Today using the U.S. military aid to those suffering in the Philippines as a backdoor means of getting the U.S. military back into a larger occupation of the Philippines:

“Deploying military resources for disaster relief is a remarkably effective — and inexpensive — investment in the future. One of the largest such deployments in history, the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other assets following the Asian tsunami of 2004, is estimated to have cost $857 million.

“[However that’s roughly only] the price of three days’ operations in Afghanistan last year.”

“The goodwill the tsunami relief brought the U.S. is incalculable. Nearly a decade later, the effort may rank as one of the most concrete reasons Southeast Asian nations trust the long-term U.S. commitment to a strategy of ‘Asian rebalancing’

“The Obama administration recognizes the value of disaster relief. As the Pentagon attempts to shift more of its weight to the Asian Pacific region while balancing a shrinking budget, this could turn out to be one of the best decisions it could make.”

[From an article by David Swanson]

Challenges in sizing up the needs of the Philippines

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Around the world, aid agencies are dispatching teams to the Philippines. A minimum of 670,000 people are displaced and 41,000 houses are damaged, with about half destroyed. And total casualty numbers continue to vary wildly, depending on different sources.

Getting a handle on a crisis on this scale is hard, but it’s made even harder when you’re working in an archipelago in a country that is relatively poor with weak infrastructure. That’s the challenge in the Philippines, where we are facing decimated services on a truly terrifying scale.

Where state resilience and infrastructure are weak, the immediate concern is recovering, maintaining and reconstructing basic water and sanitation services. A cholera outbreak is always a threat, and other diseases such as typhoid are often the first killers to emerge.

The second priority is to assess and reinforce health care systems. Many survivors would be ill and reliant on a health service that the typhoon has destroyed. So, securing and providing medication for chronic conditions such as diabetes, which can quickly become life threatening if left without attention, is crucial. We are already hearing reports of closed hospitals without power and fears of electrocution if the power is switched back on.

Reports indicate that aid agencies will be able to access a robust pharmaceuticals market based out of the capital of Manila, but the supply of medical supplies and infrastructure tools will quickly dry up.

So aid agencies will call for and coordinate international flights and shipments of the medicines and resources that are in the shortest supply or that have already run out.

Like many disasters, the event itself lasted only a few hours, but the response will take many years to achieve what it must. So this is a long-term project.

[CNN]

International aid pouring into the Philippines

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Typhoon Haiyan may have hit the Philippines with the strongest sustained cyclone winds on record at 195 mph. Gusts reported at first landfall rose to 235 mph (375 kph) — also a record, if confirmed.

Amid widespread suffering and reports of rising tensions on the ground, aid organizations and nations around the world raced to deliver aid to areas devastated by the storm five days ago.

While continued rain and transportation problems were stymieing efforts to deliver aid to those in need, Doctors Without Borders was one of many international organizations deploying cargo flights with hundreds of tons of supplies on board. Among the gear: tetanus vaccinations, hygiene kits, tents and even an inflatable hospital to treat badly wounded people staggering into Tacloban’s shattered airport seeking treatment. Oxfam and other organizations, U.N. and U.S. civilian disaster assessment teams were on the scene.

In Hong Kong, the U.S. Navy rounded up sailors enjoying shore leave from the USS George Washington and ordered the aircraft carrier’s strike group to make “best speed” for the Philippines. Its air wings will deliver supplies and medical care to survivors.

At least 29 nations or government groups had sent or pledged aid, according to the Philippines government. Among the aid — $25 million from the United Nations, $4 million from the European Union, $16 million from Britain and $10 million from the United Arab Emirates, home to a large population of expatriate Filipino workers.

Belgium and Russia sent field hospitals. The European Union sent 3 million euros ($4 million) and two Boeing 747 aircraft loaded with supplies. Israel loaded up two 747s with 200 medical personnel and supplies.

But it will almost certainly continue to be difficult to get that aid to survivors. Many roads remain blocked, and electricity is out in many areas, making it difficult to operate at night.