Dear Friends and supporters,
I received another email from Juvie and MinPRA in Gingoog. Somehow, miraculously they avoided much damage to themselves. On the compound it appears two fruit trees came down and the other crop was damaged. On the mountain property the damage was even less. They hate asking for help but they would like to help the island of Dinagat where Vera took a team on a SewAID Mission a couple of years ago.
Just now I received an email from Alf & Mary Dimarco that they are depositing a donation on the RAWCS account. Below you can see part of the latest email from Juvie. Anyone that wants to make a donation, please use the RAWCS account, Project #92 and the year 2016-17. This is of cause urgent, they are even out of potable water and that is the most urgent. Please remember that when making the donation you receive a reply and only then you make the actual donation.
You can see whom I am sending this email to, if you like to pass it on further please do so. I am doubling any amount you donate up to $10000.00
Hello everyone,
A follow-up on the first email. I just spoke to Juvie for a short time only as we got disconnected.
The story is that our donation has not arrived in Gingoog yet, as usual everything in Australia stops over the festive season, but they managed somehow to buy with delayed payment. They bought rice and did get big donations [in Filipino terms] from Medina municipality of kitchenware and other items. They also got transport trucks from them. They then, for several days packed everything portioned out for families and received a lot of help with that work from volunteers from Gingoog. They shipped it to the port on Dinagat Island, including the car, because there is no transport left on the island. In all they were away for 9 days on this outreach mission. In that time they couldn’t go much further than the port/capital city. The state governor herself, because her house is gone, lives in a tent. In the whole time they didn’t find one toilet in those days, and no hotel or restroom, no running water either. The capital mayor from the town seems disturbed to the point that he is of no effective help. All 7 had to sleep in or near the car hardly big enough for two. There is no water and no electricity. There was no internet connection. The harbour and everything else is devastated beyond recognition.
In Australia there would be help from the government, there is nothing like that; there are so many places with this particular Typhoon that the central government is not getting everywhere.
That was all Juvie could tell me before we were disconnected. Because I knew it was bad I made an immediate donation some time ago, but RAWCS and everything just got back to work on Monday. They plan to donate the donations to 3 different places; all are in the same state of devastation. Today I received the first donation to the effort of a surprising big $2,000. It would be good if we could build that up with some smaller donations. As I wrote below anything that gets donated now for this disaster, I will double any donation up to a total of $10,000.
I am sending this email to more people than the first email.
Donations above $10 to the RAWCS account are tax deductible: Go to www.rawcs.org.au, click on donate, then donate to a specific project, it is Project 92 and the year 2016-17.
The donating online process with RAWCS is greatly improved but please follow the instructions to the end when you are told it has all been completed.
Population:
23,000 households. 130,000 individuals
Extent of Damage:
Of the 22,000 houses in the entire province, it is estimated that 95% are damaged (about 20,000)
Reported Deaths: 15
Agriculture is totally damaged
The provincial government centre is totally damaged including the COVID isolation facilities
Most areas outside San Jose (the provincial hospital) are unreachable
Reported cases of diarrhoea
Gas and diesel prices at least P100/litre and running out of supply
Prices of basic commodities are exorbitantly high (example: vegetables at P300 per kilo)
Most Urgent Needs:
1. Food
Rice - urgently needed
Rice in warehouse good for one month - but now all wet
2. Potable Water
3. Medicines
4. Temporary Shelter (tarps and tents)
5. Immediate restoration of telcos
6. Electric power
We would be happy to facilitate any relief program in your behalf. You may contact through my email add when you desire to help in whatever you can.
Regards,
Juvie