Flood relief and rehabilitation projects go full-blast

CERV and its volunteers participated in relief missions to 17 flooded communities around Luzon Island after the twin devastations of Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng that killed more than a thousand people and destroyed properties and livelihood worth billions of pesos.

 Volunteers Shafaq Varghese (Pakistan/USA) and Yusuke Nakata (Japan) helped distribute thousands of relief bags containing rice, other food items, medicine and used clothing to flooding victims.

 Former volunteers came through with immediate cash donations for the relief missions as well.  Magan Savant (with wife Nitu and daughter Urvi of India and Hong Kong), Richard Kastenschmidt (with wife Renee of the USA) sent cash donations immediately after learning of the devastations.

 The GVN Foundation immediately set up an emergency relief fund drive where several GVN/CERV volunteers also sent donations.  The fund raising drive is still ongoing through this link.

CERV has committed to the rehabilitation of the Batibot Early Learning Center, a community school that was completely flooded at the height of the storm.  It serves 50 schoolchildren in an urban poor community run by a local women’s organization.

The school rehabilitation project will be funded by donations through the GVN Foundation.  Paints, books, medicines and equipment shall be donated to the school and volunteers shall work repainting and rehabilitating the school.

Relief and rehabilitation efforts are ongoing as floodwaters still refuse to subside in some parts of Metro Manila.  Millions of families still have to recover from losing their rice and vegetable crops.

Meanwhile, repeat volunteer Alan Fry (Australia) donated a netbook to serve as temporary replacement to the desktop computer lost when the CERV dorm was flooded during Typhoon Ondoy.

The following have kindly donated to the relief and rehabilitation fund.  (Names preceded by an asterisk are former or current volunteers.)

Pamela M Hackett

*DCB Dunne

*Eliza M Raymond

Sheena Lad

Amanda R Walsh

Ariel K Turner

Cayce E Chalk

*Catherine Douglass

Jonathan H Lester

K C Austin

Ruthanne Gartland

*Erik S Johnson

Tsang M Man Heem

Mhairi McAlpine

Anna Ware

*Richard and Renee Kastenschmidt

Carol G Voorhees

Pamela Tan

*Peter H Smyth

Carol Thomas

Thomas Chisholm

Johanna Lindberg

Kozlowicz Dorota

NG Every

Jeff Doyle

*Marit Hovhaugholen

Christopher A DiMarco

S Travers

Traudel Arend

Jill S Castillo

Sujay Pathak

M Harding Lee Cranford

*Carolyn J German

Lisa Brooten

Kate Davies

Rochelle T Nieuwenhuis

SA Avison

*Sophie Hamada

Barry Helfanbein

Nicole Jame Jatarra

Apetrei Sebastian

James L Mundell

Alan Hastings

Claire Walker

Wendy Brissenden

Fatma Khan

*Rachel Allitt

*Magan, Nitu and Urvi Savant