I received this note from Fr Paul via facebook today:
Brooke, thank you so much for your support.
We have been helping in particular about 60 families in Payatas. There are of course many more than that but we have been focussing on one area in particular (you might want to look at the facebook site of Miguel Paolo Rivera to see some pictures).
If we get more funds we are considering helping others as well as those 60 families.
Another thing that I am considering, again if we get enough funds, is whether we will be able to help any of the victims of the typhoon from Payatas in a longer term way. They are extremely poor people most of whom get their livelihood from scavenging on the rubbish dump.
Just after the typhoon I was with them as they were eating food picked up from the rubbish dump (meat thrown away on the garbage which they rescue and eat), actually even before the disaster this is what some of them eat. Maybe this disaster in their lives can be an opprtunity, if enough funds arrive, for them to recieve some longer term help (for example for a tutor for their children since without education they will almost certanly stay in poverty for the rest of their lives).
Anyway thanks for remembering and more than remembering. Please continue to keep everyone in your prayers even after the immediate news of everything dies down and most people forget.
GOD BLESS
Fr Paul
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Typhoon Ondoy
I am not entirely certain if this still works; we haven't updated this blog since returning to the US almost two years ago. However, I just wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who have responded to our pleas for financial assistance for our friends in Manila who were devastated by last week's typhoon and ensuing floods. Through your responsiveness and generosity, we were able to double the amount of money that we intended to send on our own.
Our friends in Manila, especially those we worked with in Payatas, were hit especially hard by the flooding. I have recently been in contact with both Mhel and Father Paul. Father Paul's small hovel in Payatas was flooded to the ceiling and his neighbors and many of the people he's worked with for years have been displaced. Mhel tells us that the people we worked with in Payatas are living in a school right now. Most of them have lost whatever meager possessions they had; all that is left is the clothes they were wearing when the storm hit. The funds we have raised will go to help meet these immediate needs - food and clothing.
Again, I cannot thank you enough for your generosity. Between this typhoon and the recent earthquakes and tsunami, it's so easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the urgent need and, ultimately, helpless. It means something to look that helplessness square in the face and give
what you can anyway, even as you feel that it can't possibly matter or make a dent in the sea of need.
It does.
Our friends in Manila, especially those we worked with in Payatas, were hit especially hard by the flooding. I have recently been in contact with both Mhel and Father Paul. Father Paul's small hovel in Payatas was flooded to the ceiling and his neighbors and many of the people he's worked with for years have been displaced. Mhel tells us that the people we worked with in Payatas are living in a school right now. Most of them have lost whatever meager possessions they had; all that is left is the clothes they were wearing when the storm hit. The funds we have raised will go to help meet these immediate needs - food and clothing.
Again, I cannot thank you enough for your generosity. Between this typhoon and the recent earthquakes and tsunami, it's so easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the urgent need and, ultimately, helpless. It means something to look that helplessness square in the face and give
what you can anyway, even as you feel that it can't possibly matter or make a dent in the sea of need.
It does.
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