• KARAPATAN
  
• Heart of Mary Villa Convent
  
• The Philippine Embassy - The Netherlands
  

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From KARAPATAN
Manila

September 30, 2009

My dear friends,

Warm greetings to all of you and we hope that you and your families are well.

On saturday, we were devastated by a massive flood. thank god, all of us at the karapatan national office are accounted for and safe (it's only the other day that we were able to make contact with some of our colleagues living in the heavily affected areas like San Mateo, Rizal; many areas are still without electricity and water service).

Many suffered the scourge of the flood; some of my colleagues' relatives had to be rescued from their houses (the first floor of the house got submerged in the flood and the waters are raging like mad), several had their belongings soaked in mud; a colleague had to let her family transfer to an evacuation center. A friend lost her house entirely; and we were thankful she and her family survived.

I think, I was the luckiest. Even though my area got flooded, it did not reach the level that my colleagues experienced. it was maddening on saturday contacting everyone and getting the fright of my life as the night wore on without word from the others and with electricity down); accounting for colleagues and accompanying one of my officemates through text as she rescued her family (her sister has twin babies aged 7 months, god, and no help came through). I called all the emergency numbers, media contacts, government officials to no avail. first the government emergency lines are clogged, the media said that they couldn't contact rescue teams.

It was good that at nightfall, the waters receded a bit; when it was chest deep, my colleague was finally able to get her sister and the babies out of the house and my other officemates were able to get them to the safe confines of the office finally at 9 pm of saturday (we started calling for help at 11 am when there was an onrush of floodwaters). it was a most frightful moment. on monday when I went to the office, I had to listen to more horrifying tales.

On monday afternoon, Bayan called for an emergency meeting. member organizations reported an initial 150,000 families of their members in Metro Manila alone are affected by the calamity, many of the most affected live in the Pasig, Marikina, San Mateo and Cainta, Rizal areas. They need food, clothing, water in the immediate. at the onset of the floods, people's organizations were the first to organize their rescue efforts; the government was caught flat footed.

On Sunday, with limited resources, some of our organizations distributed what little they can offer but this is just too little for the multitude who need help. I still cannot contact our central Luzon region and the southern tagalog region. there are reports of landslides in these regions. I dread the number of deaths, it is still rising and there are many unreported in the media. and there is a report of another storm coming in by thursday!

We decided to put 70% of our workforce to help in the relief efforts under the auspices of Bayan. There's just too much devastation especially in our communities that are the most vulnerable sectors. We worry the rehab aspect of the work.

While we are at this, our newly elected secretary general went with a team that just went to the eastern visayas region to look into cases of human rights violations especially killings (originally, they were supposed to leave monday, but we had to postpone it for yesterday). so 30% of our workforce is doing our usual work.

APPEAL FOR HELP and SUPPORT

We strongly appeal for our friends' help and support at this time. We call on everyone who are able to give cash donations so that we can also defray the cost of some building materials for some of our staff, friends and the families in our communities.

Presently, we are in the process of hooking up with big local networks and organizations soliciting goods for the immediate food and clothing needs of the affected families so that we can distribute these systematically in the communities affected.

Immediately, we at Karapatan are looking after two communities (120 and 257 families each, totalling 1,885 people) which we directly organize - many of them are victims of martial law and other human rights violations.

You can also give cash donations for the food needs of these affected families. We have the list of names of these families and we have already a system to distribute the goods. being organized helps a lot in the relief distribution. so please help us in generating support to our affected families.

For donations, please go to this link: www.karapatan.org/node/322 for easy sending of donations. this is the Karapatan donate page thru paypal

Thank you so much for thinking about us, being with us in this most trying times and for any help that can be extended.

sincerely yours,

Marie Hilao-Enriquez
KARAPATAN Secretary General
For more info:
mhilaoenriquez@gmail.com

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From Heart of Mary Villa Convent
Malabon City

Heart of Mary Villa

394 M.H. DEL PILAR ST., MAYSILO
MALABON CITY, PHILIPPINES 1477
Tel: (63 2) 277-03-51 or 446-73-41
Email: heartofmaryvilla@yahoo.com



Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
An NGO in special consultative status with ECOSOC, United Nations

September 26, 2009 – Typhoon Onyong/Ketsana (international name)

FLASH FLOOD!!!
8 FEET HIGH

SAVED:

LIFE of: 23 babies (4 newborn: one with a hole in the heart and he needs immediate surgery)
17 mothers
14 staff (9 caregivers; 1 social worker; 1 driver;
3 maintenance men)
2 volunteers
Maternity Home Directress
Executive Directress
Tabernacle with Consecrated Hosts

Damaged:

Chapel; Nursery: both almost fully submerged
caregivers’ dormitory
All rooms on the first floor of the Administration Building and Maternity
Home: fully submerged (offices of the President, Executive Directress,
Maternity Home Directress, Adoption Office, Intake Room, Receiving
Rooms (parlors), Therapy Rooms, Clinic, Counseling Rooms, Activity
Rooms, Kitchen, and Dining Room)

Destroyed:
Office equipment; audio-visual equipment; communication equipment in
all offices; Documents; Books
Nursery facilities, appliances, and equipment: Playroom and lanai
(sliding glass door, cushioned floors and padded walls; tape recorders,
tapes, toys, books); sleeping area (flooring); mattresses of the cribs, air
cooler, air conditioning units, electric fans; sink, bowls; bathing
equipment for babies; babies’ clothing; supplies; medicines; refrigerator,
freezer, cabinets, sofa, beds, washing machines, television, DVD player,
computers, camera, medical books.

We need your help.

You can deposit any amount you are willing and able, to help us.
Account Name: Heart of Mary Villa
Account Number: Peso SA 4853-0313-51
Dollar SA 4854-0022-66

Bank: BPI Panghulo Malabon Branch
SWIFT CODE: BOPIPHMM

Please email us of the amount and date of remittance for proper acknowledgment.

THANK YOU! GOD BLESS!
Love and warm regards.
Sr. Lorenz and all of us in HMV

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From The Philippine Embassy - The Netherlands

Embassy of the Philippines
Laan Copes van Cattenburch 125
2585 EZ The Hague, Netherlands
Tel. No. 070 3604820 / Fax No. 070 3560030
Email: thehague@philembassy.nl


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