2,5 million of people in Philippines need help. We have distributed rice

The estimate number of damaged houses has increased significantly, from 300,000 up to one million, 490,000 having been completely destroyed, according to the Philippines Ministry of Social Affairs. The estimate number of evacuees has raised up from 1,9 million to 4 million people since last Friday. The survivors are staying in 1,500 evacuation centres.

Five tons of rice will feed 1,000 families

"Tomorrow at 3 a.m. we are setting off to Sillion village with the load of five tons of rice," says Petr Štefan, who already distributed food packages for 250 families right there, trying at the same time to assess the needs in villages damaged by the typhoon. "Sillion was worst affected out of the 15 or 20 villages I went through, with almost all houses destroyed there, 500 of them flattened completely by the typhoon. People have lost their crop, fishermen lost their boats, and they depend on the external help now," Petr Štefan describes the situation.

People in Need will distribute 5 kg food kits right at the place, which will feed 1,000 families for other five days. "Filipinos suggested rice as the staple food themselves, we bought it in a warehouse in the capital of Cebu, volunteers sort it into the kits and loaded on school buses, provided by the local university," describes Štefan the preparation of the aid. "Tomorrow we must set out as early as at 3 a.m. to avoid traffic jams and catch the first ferry boat to the island, so that the local people have the food supplies at 10 in the morning," adds Štefan directly from the capital of Cebu.

"We are sending our field research team to Leyte island, which seems to be the worst affected. Tidal waves damaged smaller islands in the east and they have not got any help at all up to now although the extent of destruction is estimated to be the highest," says Marek Štys, PIN Relief Programmes Manager.

According to Marek Štys, People in Need would like to focus their next relief effort on debris removal, distributing hygiene kits and stuff needed for building makeshift shelters. Two other humanitarian workers from Prague and Afghanistan are joining the team in Cebu Island today and tomorrow.

Current state of the SOS Philippines charity account

On the SOS Philippine charity account over 10 million Czech crowns have been collected up to now. Other 2 million CZK from three important donors will arrive to the SOS Philippines charity account in upcoming days:

The Vodafone Foundation has pledged a one-off contribution of 500,000 CZK, and in addition to double the revenues from donors messages of the Vodafone customers. Further aid worth half a million crowns has been pledged by the Avast Foundation, while The City of Prague will make a contribution of 1 million CZK. When creating the charity account, People in Need instantly released a total of 500,000 CZK from the People in Need Club of Friends Relief Fund. That will be more than 12.5 million CZK totally on the charity account at disposal.

 For further information, please contact:

Marek Štys (CR), PIN Relief Programmes Manager

 +420 777053522, Marek.Stys@clovekvtisni.cz  

Petr Štefan (Philippines), PIN Media Coordinator

  +639082365239, petr.stefan@clovekvtisni.cz