How to help in times of Crisis: Ondoy brings it closer to home

I realized last Saturday that there was a downside to not watching TV.

We were totally clueless what was happening around the city.  We were lucky, my kids and I were in one of the few places where there was no flood.  Almost like we were in another part of the world, all we knew was the rains were really hard and it was just good to stay home.

Eerie thing to receive at 10pm at night and there is little thing to do but pray

I was then so surprised to hear from friends asking how we were.  Of course, I was touched and I wished them a safe night as well.  I only realized why friends were concerned when I had 2 mistexts trying to ask to be rescued!

Imagine!  No electricity, no phone, no radio and I was receiving texts from unknown people asking for help.

I could only pray they received help.

It was the day after that I found out how bad it was.  Today, I found out one of our friends was one of those who had to flee from Provident Homes in Marikina.

They didn’t ask for help until I offered.  Maybe because they had a place to go to, but to lose everything could really be devastating.

So aside from the ususal precautions and disaster should-do’s here is something else I learned to keep in mind.

1. Ask.  It would be  comforting for your friends, not only your family, when people ask them how they are, if they are safe, and if they have a place to go to.
2. Offer.  Don’t wait for them to ask, sometimes they are too disoriented to remember where they can get help from.  It is also comforting when help is given even when it was not asked.
3. Organize mini-help groups. Not everyone can volunteer to join the organized relief centers, but everyone can organize their own mini-help groups with people close to you, either your neighbors, school friends, etc. You would be in a better position to help those you know, reach out to those who may need help, then sharing the extra donations to the big groups becomes more organized.  It would also be less load for the national groups to handle and make them more efficient (hopefully).
4. Share even the non-necessary.  We all know the basics, food, clothes, shoes, blankets, etc.  but it would also be good to share even the extras like personal care items, school supplies and mats.  It would be less to worry about when you have lost so much.
5. Give toys.  Children are resilient and it would help them deal with the stress better when they have something comforting to play with.  To be uprooted from all things familiar is unimaginable, this would help bring some semblance of normalcy to the chaos.

Let us all help in whatever little way we can, there is still a lot of work to do and to let the national government and the NGOs take care of it and it becomes all the more overwhelming.  Remember every little bit helps.

Theresa