Help Filipino Communities Prepare for Disaster

In a previous project report we explained how we’re raising funds this Holiday season to help improve and maintain the Banaba Livelihood & Evacuation Centre after our charity closes. To show how vital the Centre is, we then shared the story of Rheanna who found safety in the Center during typhoons Rolly and Ulysses when she was just 6 months old.

In this report we wanted to share the story of another Banaba resident who’s relied on the Centre and your wider support, this time in the aftermath of storms.

As we explained in a previous report, the Centre also houses Buklod Tao’s “Community Kitchen”. The kitchen is run by local volunteers who cook hot nutritious meals for evacuees taking shelter in the building. These volunteers also go out into the wider community after typhoons and storms to provide meals to others struggling in the aftermath. 

For example, after Super Typhoon Karding struck in September of this year these volunteers provided well over 500 hot meals to local residents, using the “Community Kitchen” as their base of operations.

The supply of these meals is vital to poorer residents, who often struggle to survive even before disasters strike, and this was especially true during Covid, when many lost work due to lockdown.

Thirty-three year old Michelle (pictured above) is just one of those helped during these tough times. Michelle is a single parent residing in a small neighborhood in the Pangan Compound. She is still jobless due to the impacts of the pandemic, and hot meals from the Community Kitchen provided her a lifeline when she needed it most. Michelle had this to say about the support your generosity helped provide:

"Big thanks for all the assistance extended to me and my kids especially during the days of the pandemic. I recall being awakened by the summons of Buklod Tao community kitchen volunteers for the provision of hot breakfast meals for my two children".

We echo Michelle’s thanks. Without your amazing support the Centre wouldn’t be watertight today. Your generosity also helped to equip the building to provide hot meals, and have enabled us to provide Buklod Tao with funds to purchase the ingredients for the meals.

We know you’ve already given so much but we hope you’ll consider making a further gift to this project if you can. In doing so, you’ll help ensure that residents like Michelle and her children can receive hot meals when they need it most.

You can find out more about our plans to close down IDV on our website, and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email Andy@IDVolunteers.org. I’d be delighted to hear from you as always.