Relief For Fellowmen

Kitkat with fellow students volunteering at the Iloilo Municipal Hall.

Following the extensive and heart wrenching destruction brought by Typhoon Yolanda (International name: Haiyan), a lot of kindhearted people took it upon themselves to do what they can to help. Be it through prayer, financial or material support, and spiritual and personal help. Whole towns were leveled by the super typhoon. In those towns were houses, livelihoods, churches, medical facilities, schools, and government facilities. The typhoon not only leveled buildings, it also leveled status quos. There was no rich and no poor, no common man or public official. Everyone was one thing and one thing alone... a victim.

We were all witness to how destructive Yolanda was. How it felled power lines, communication towers, bridges, roads, and leveled structures. We saw that however well the local governments prepared for the storm, its wake was far more than can be handled. Food stockpiles were ruined, there were no police, no doctors, no public officials. Because they were victims themselves. The only people who can help were hundreds of miles away unable to reach them because of destroyed and blocked roads. Still, efforts to help proceeded, we do what we can as remote citizens and hope that those who can clear the way will be able to do so as soon as they can.

Paolo and Issa's school (Doane Baptist Academy) initiated a relief effort asking the parents for used clothes, food, and water to be collected and sent to outlying towns and nearby Capiz. We collected clothing from our cabinets, ones we hardly ever use, along with some blankets and towels, toiletries, and canned foods. We packed them in plastic bags for Issa and Paolo, and some more as additional stuff and brought them to the school, where all the other children, parents, relatives, teachers, and church members, have amassed relief goods that filled the basketball court. There was a donation of 300 sacks of rice, boxes and boxes of canned food, instant noodles, innumerable bottles of water, and tons of used clothes. Packing them involved everybody from students to teachers, to parents.

Kitkat's school (Doane Christian Academy Foundation) also participated in a similar effort at the Iloilo Municipal Hall, helped repack the relief goods into manageable and distributable quantities, along with students from other Christian schools. Theirs was an even bigger operation and involved a lot of volunteers over several days as the donations from kindhearted people are continuously coming in.