[Re]actions to Typhoon Yolanda

The typhoon has passed over more than one week, and for me its incredible and heartwarming to see how people, companies, institutions and overseas governments come up with support to help improving the situation in Leyte, Samar and Cebu. (Unfortunately especially Leyte.)

In my previous article I was writing about Bulig Isko - only one example for immediate reaction of an Alumni group of a College in Tacloban. They asked for donations and are now buying goods in Manila which will be transported to Tacloban by aircraft offered for free by the Filipino Military.

All over the city and in facebook people promote donation spots where old cloths, canned food and noodles, blankets, rice etc will be collected. Not only  NGOs or Churches - like i would expect it in Germany - make it their task to get into action - it are many individuals and small groups who feel responsible and come up with creative foundraising ideas.

A day of music, dance, poetry and rap, artists who are selling their paintings for a cause, rummage second hand selling and tatoos for a cause....people are offering whatever they can.

To communicate with friends and relatives, online recharge sevice aryty.com offered 30php free load, Skype is giving away a voucher worth 2$ and messenger "viber" opened a temporary sevice (viber.com/typhoon) to call families and friends for free and provides free communication through viber phones and laptops in Ayala Malls.

Skype,

1. Go to skype.com/go/voucher
2. Enter your Skype Name and password
3. Enter the voucher code below and click Redeem
SKYPE-U8H66-HFWGD-TD34B-VKFWC

Western Union provides a no-fee money transfer for all Transactions to the Philippines from selected countries and online transactions (WesternUnion.com).

Of cause companies probably don't ignore the fact that gestures like these will improve their image, but still they are giving away a free service to people.

The two biggest flight companies Cebu Pacific Air and Air Philippines were offering free flights Tacloban- Manila, which ended up in fighting for tickets. A bus shuttle was establiched to bring people to the ferry terminal where free transportation to the cities Cebu, Davao and Manila was organized during first days after. Now filipino and US military is taking over and flew alreday 9000 people to Manila and Cebu for resettelement, according to BusinessMirror.com. The refugees will be given a temporary shelter in a tent and donations will cover besic needs, but still this is a big challenge to government and aid organizations.

675 passengers were transported out of Tacloban City, Leyte on the way to Manila yesterday on board USAF C-17.

(Photo by US Air Force) 

There's an interesting development among filipino people, that grow distrust and anger against their own government. As it is known to be corrupt, people are afraid that donations - especially money - won't reach their final destination.

And while international aid keeps coming into the country, a scandal was revealed that the filipino government started repacking donations from indonesia to put their own logo on top and use this desperate situation -  where every second is important to people waiting for support - is misused as promotion event.

Let's hope that this growing critical sense of thinking and attention to governmental actions will put some pressure and motivation to politicians, and maybe lead to a bit more transparency to their actions - at least for this typhoon crisis management period.