Mercy Relief’s first response team was in Manila early last week, in response to a direct official appeal for assistance from the local government. Despite relief operations being slowed by continuous rains and neck-deep floodwaters in many areas, the MR team managed to reach its targeted beneficiary communities to distribute food, drinking water, hygiene kits and tarpaulins (for shelters) to 800 families across Navotas City and Manila City. Homes were washed away by the floods affecting or displacing more than 2.4 million people. Many were crammed into evacuation centres, which worryingly, risk the threat of a secondary disaster in the form of epidemics. Hundreds of towns still remain underwater, and more intense rains are expected to further drench a country which hosts an average of 20 typhoons and storms annually.
MR’s Chief Executive Hassan Ahmad shared, “This is the time of the year where MR spends a lot more time working in the Philippines. It is time-consuming and energy-sapping conducting relief operations having to wade through the widespread floodwaters to procure relief supplies and reach the stranded communities. This is as much a test of their resilience and systems as it is of our compassion and determination to help cushion their pains, especially the children’s. We will try to accompany them and sustain our relief efforts through their current plight.”
Below are glimpses of the ground situation captured by MR’s first deployment.
MR has obtained the permit from the Charities Unit to raise funds for the regional crises from 11 August –10 September 2012,
About Mercy Relief
Mercy Relief is a Singaporean humanitarian organisation which engages in both disaster relief and sustainable development programmes. It was established in 2003 as an independent non-governmental humanitarian charity responding to the human tragedies in Asia. Mercy Relief’s aid programme focuses on providing timely and effective assistance to disaster-stricken communities and has maintained the delivery of emergency aid within 72 hours from the point of appeal for assistance.
In the past 12 years, Mercy Relief has disbursed over S$32 million in aid across 40 disaster relief and 53 sustainable development initiatives. Mercy Relief has impacted an aggregate of 2 million lives in 24 countries and areas, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Yemen.
For more information, you may call us at 6514 6322 or email corporateaffairs@mercyrelief.org
