Filipino diaspora rallies after Typhoon Haiyan
From Hong Kong to Dubai, pastors, teachers and consular officials describe an unprecedented outpouring of support from a diaspora that even in normal times is renowned for sending large amounts of money home to family and friends.
“Everyone is mobilising, everyone is raising funds for organisations and churches,” says Joyce Demetillo, a pastor at the Jesus is Lord church in Hong Kong.
Verna Fajilan, a former ballerina at Ballet Philippines who teaches dance in Hong Kong, says that while the Filipino “spirit for helping . . . is instinctive”, Haiyan has sparked an altogether different level of response from expatriates.
“Because of the enormity of the typhoon, there are more people now who want to mobilise the relief efforts,” says Ms Fajilan, who is organising charity zumba dance classes to raise money.
The Philippines foreign ministry says there are more than 10m Filipinos overseas who, according to the central bank, sent $21bn home in 2012.
Similar events are happening across the world, including in the United Arab Emirates, home to 500,000 Filipinos, most of whom live in the business hub of Dubai. They are the second most dense concentration of migrants in the oil-rich Gulf after Saudi Arabia, where an estimated 1.2m work.
Wendell Castro, chairman of Task Force Yolanda – as Haiyan is known in the Philippines – in Dubai, is leading one of dozens of campaigns launched by about 100 Philippine community associations in the UAE. They have set up collection points for food, clothing, medicine and blankets, and are hoping to organise musical and prayer gatherings once they receive official approval.
“We are targeting about $200,000-$300,000 in donations,” Mr Castro says.
Filipinos from the affected areas have also spent the past week scouring the internet and awaiting phone calls for news about their families.
Jessa, a 26-year-old receptionist, has social media to thank for the end to six torturous days of uncertainty after her home town of Isabel in Leyte province was devastated, reduced to “only five homes”, she says.
Some residents of the town of about 45,000 people managed to bring a generator from a nearby island to charge mobile phones. They scaled a nearby hill to get a signal and posted pictures online.
“I’d been looking at Facebook 24/7, waiting for something, and I recognised the landscape,” says Jessa. “So I sent a comment – ‘Please help me’ – and they gave me a number of a neighbour who went to my mother.”
Thousands of kilometres away in New York, Elmer Villaluz, 66, treasurer at San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel – the city’s main Filipino church whose masses have been bustling – says that parishioners and the local community have come together to donate cash and clothes to the Red Cross.
“Filipinos are very religious . . . but they’re asking why did this happen to them?” Mr Villaluz says. “We are thankful because the global community is giving us aid.”
Frank Cimafranca, the Philippines consul-general in Dubai, says the consulate is “trying to raise awareness” by directing donations to government bodies and non-government organisations that are taking donations. While many Filipinos may want to return home to help, he says that in most cases, it is not possible.
“Some people will return to the Philippines because they worry for their loved ones, but most will stay for practical reasons – there is nothing more they can do and it is better to send money,” he says
But some people have decided that staying away is too hard. Patrizia Villamore, a domestic helper who has lived in Hong Kong for two decades, flew to Manila and then made her way to Cebu where she met up with her husband Brian Delima, a construction worker in Saudi Arabia, who had also flown home after the typhoon.
Speaking by phone from Cebu, the couple said that after they arrived in the Philippines they learned that his uncle had died. Mr Delima says his uncle survived the typhoon only to die several days later from the cold. Ms Villamore explains that the scale of the disaster made it impossible for them not to return home.
“It is a very different feeling. We want to see our families – are they alive or not.”
Additional reporting by Camilla Hall in New York
“Everyone is mobilising, everyone is raising funds for organisations and churches,” says Joyce Demetillo, a pastor at the Jesus is Lord church in Hong Kong.
Verna Fajilan, a former ballerina at Ballet Philippines who teaches dance in Hong Kong, says that while the Filipino “spirit for helping . . . is instinctive”, Haiyan has sparked an altogether different level of response from expatriates.
“Because of the enormity of the typhoon, there are more people now who want to mobilise the relief efforts,” says Ms Fajilan, who is organising charity zumba dance classes to raise money.
The Philippines foreign ministry says there are more than 10m Filipinos overseas who, according to the central bank, sent $21bn home in 2012.
Rosanna Villamor, the Philippines deputy consul-general in Hong Kong where there are 180,000 Filipinos, says she has been amazed by the “sheer number of people who have come forward with a number of fundraising events”. She adds that one difference from previous disasters is that people are sending the consulate names of relatives and loved ones that they cannot locate.
Daisy Mandap, editor of the Sun, a newspaper for Filipinos in Hong Kong, says this Sunday – the day most of the city’s 163,000 domestic helpers have a day off – will see a big response, as Filipinos arrange fundraising events across the territory.
Wendell Castro, chairman of Task Force Yolanda – as Haiyan is known in the Philippines – in Dubai, is leading one of dozens of campaigns launched by about 100 Philippine community associations in the UAE. They have set up collection points for food, clothing, medicine and blankets, and are hoping to organise musical and prayer gatherings once they receive official approval.
“We are targeting about $200,000-$300,000 in donations,” Mr Castro says.
Filipinos from the affected areas have also spent the past week scouring the internet and awaiting phone calls for news about their families.
Jessa, a 26-year-old receptionist, has social media to thank for the end to six torturous days of uncertainty after her home town of Isabel in Leyte province was devastated, reduced to “only five homes”, she says.
I’d been looking at Facebook 24/7 and I recognised the landscape. So I sent a comment – ‘Please help me’ – and they gave me a number of a neighbour who went to my mother- Jessa, receptionist
“I’d been looking at Facebook 24/7, waiting for something, and I recognised the landscape,” says Jessa. “So I sent a comment – ‘Please help me’ – and they gave me a number of a neighbour who went to my mother.”
Thousands of kilometres away in New York, Elmer Villaluz, 66, treasurer at San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel – the city’s main Filipino church whose masses have been bustling – says that parishioners and the local community have come together to donate cash and clothes to the Red Cross.
“Filipinos are very religious . . . but they’re asking why did this happen to them?” Mr Villaluz says. “We are thankful because the global community is giving us aid.”
Frank Cimafranca, the Philippines consul-general in Dubai, says the consulate is “trying to raise awareness” by directing donations to government bodies and non-government organisations that are taking donations. While many Filipinos may want to return home to help, he says that in most cases, it is not possible.
Some people will return to the Philippines because they worry for their loved ones, but most will stay for practical reasons – there is nothing more they can do and it is better to send money- Frank Cimafranca, Philippines consul-general in Dubai
But some people have decided that staying away is too hard. Patrizia Villamore, a domestic helper who has lived in Hong Kong for two decades, flew to Manila and then made her way to Cebu where she met up with her husband Brian Delima, a construction worker in Saudi Arabia, who had also flown home after the typhoon.
Speaking by phone from Cebu, the couple said that after they arrived in the Philippines they learned that his uncle had died. Mr Delima says his uncle survived the typhoon only to die several days later from the cold. Ms Villamore explains that the scale of the disaster made it impossible for them not to return home.
“It is a very different feeling. We want to see our families – are they alive or not.”
Additional reporting by Camilla Hall in New York
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