Needs in the Philippines

ICDC has been able to partner with several local NGOs to provide assistance to families devastated by Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng (known as Ketsana and Parma in the international community). Currently, the needs for basic necessities outweigh anything else, with families searching for food, clean water, shelter, and clothing.

ICDC is currently accepting donations for 1 week's worth of food for about 10,000 families. In addition, they are facing a great medicine shortage. Because of conditions brought on by the flooding, medication for diarrhea, athlete's foot, colds, hypertension, and fevers are the most essential, followed by a need for vitamins to boost immune resistance to the rampant disease.

To best offer aid for these needs, ICDC is meeting with the Red Cross about a possible 2-week medical mission to the area.

Pollution is also becoming an issue, with garbage piling up, smelling, and providing a place for fungus and disease to grow. For the moment, the best solution available in most locations is to sequester trash and debris as much as possible.

Given the incredibly large number of people affected by this disaster, ICDC does not yet know how long relief efforts are going to be necessary. They are, however, dedicated to offering aid in as many ways as possible until the crisis is over.

Philippines Post-Typhoon Situation Summary

Between September 26, 2009 and October 3, 2009, two typhoons hit the Philippines. The wind and rains have filled many roads waist-deep or higher, making them all but impassable. People have been stranded away from their families for hours or days needed rescue from rooftops and trees, and some even lost their lives.

In some places, the devastation was total. Buildings not destroyed are uninhabitable, and food supplies cut off indefinitely. ICDC and other local NGOs have been working day and night to reach people who need the basic necessities: food, clean water, and dry clothes. The city flooded so quickly in places that people were unable to save anything except the clothes on their backs and their lives, so the need for basic necessities is great.

Many of the families affected were participants in ICDC's microfinance program, and so are some of the micro-entrepreneurs GIVE has been hoping to aid. ICDC is assessing their situations and mustering what aid they can to help.

Needless to say, these disasters put a crimp in GIVE's plans to open the new micro-entrepreneurship center. While those plans are still in the works, ICDC and its affiliates have had to refocus on helping the communities around them survive and thrive in the face of this tragedy. We hope that this will be a short delay and our plans will be back on schedule shortly.