Sweet Potato Disaster

The first plea on Facebook was on November 8^th at 7:00 a.m. by Kimiko:

I just saw the news and thought of you two . . . Hope you are all safe.


The next post at 3:00 p.m. on November 8^th from Nicole:

Thinking of you guys! Hope you are safe and sound.




The next post at 12:22 a.m. November 9^th from Eliana:

Yes, please post something that you are all right. We are worried about you!
 






At 7:01 a.m. Kylie posted:

Hope you guys are OK and just out of Internet contact. Take care...


Then later in the morning Trudi posted:

Hey, are you guys okay?? Just found out about the typhoon...love you all, very worried.

Finally at 3:23 p.m. on November 9^th Pat and Monique Donahue posted this message:

Thanks Becki, we are all fine. The devastation was further north. It's still not clear what the extent of the damage was. Basic utilities are cut. We only spent 24 hours without electricity and water so we were fine.


Then this message at 5:53 p.m.:

Thanks Tiff, We are fine. It was BAD! We are very lucky though as we only had 175 km winds rather than 325 km/h further north. Thanks for thinking about us!


Then this is the response from Tiff:

Hoping you are all ok. Thoughts and wishes are with you. Please send updates when you can. love Tiff, Todd and Bridget

As you may have guessed, Pat, Monique and their two children survived Typhon Haiyan last week in the Philippines. This is the message our mutual friend posted on Facebook:

Pat and Monique “have lived all over the world and are currently living in the Philippines with their two amazing pre-teen kids.”

She posted this message from Monique, “I'm setting up a small local relief effort for a small community on nearby islands that have been forgotten by the rescue operations. Please let me know if you want to help out and I'll send you more information by email. We are coordinating everything ourselves and all funds raised will go directly towards helping the victims of the typhoon on the Camotes Islands. Monique”

The island is said to have gotten its name from the Spanish. When they first arrived they asked the locals the name of the island. The locals thought they wanted to know what they were planting. They said camotes, which is the Spanish word for sweet potato.

Today’s gift was to give a gift to the relief fund that Monique established. The attached picture is of Camotes Islands before the typhoon. With last weeks devastation I can only imagine what it looks like today. Hopefully the people of the Philippines will find comfort in the help offered by kind people like Monique and the many other relief efforts from all over the world.

In Giving,

Robin

For those who want to read more about this, I just received this email from Monique:

Hi Robin,

Thanks so much for your concern and interest. My husband and I are teachers at an international school in Cebu city. You can look us up at www.cis.edu.ph. 

The typhoon passed over our city and there was minor damage. 80kms north of here the winds were much, much stronger and the damage is extensive. Roofs blown off and many fruit trees (banana, papaya and mango, a major cash crop here for many families) uprooted. 

Our nanny who lives with us comes from a small group of islands called the Camotes not far from us. The community of her family, who live in a small village on a hill 5 kms above Poro town has been affected. Many houses are damaged and their crops gone. They are facing the 'year of starvation', as they called it themselves. Because the government here is  ineffective in organizing relief efforts and no aid has come yet as of now -and I'm fearing never will- we are organizing our own effort. We are collecting donations. The money will go to 2 scholarships for two promising students who'se tuition fees are 450 USD per semester. They will graduate in April and will be of much use to their families supporting them financially. As the family doesn't have any income for the next 12 months from their crops this will be a very big help. The other part of our relief effort will go into buying rice for the community. Possibly, if there are extra funds left over, we will help buying construction materials and school packs for the village children in June, when they go back to school, as this is always a big cash expense for many families. Tuition in government schools is free but the children need to buy their uniforms and school supplies.

I hope that I've been able to paint a picture of what we are doing and what's been going on. It is really, really awful what has happened and we're all trying to help as much as we can, not just for now, but more in terms of the future. There will be another disaster somewhere on the planet in a little while and the attention will shift away from here, but the need will remain. There is a lot of relief coming in right now and it is going to the worst affected areas on Leyte and Samar islands. They really need it bad. However, many other areas, north of us here on Cebu, IloIlo and Camotes are being forgotten as there was no storm surge and the need is not as immediate. The people on these islands however will face a very tough year, which is why we are focusing our efforts there. Also, because we have personal connections and will be able to distribute 100% of the funds without having to go through any organization or government agency. We will work together with the local community and school to make sure the donations go where they need to.

Thank again for contacting us.

I'll keep you posted on the updates of the project.

Selamat, Monique Donahue