Dear friends,

It is getting better but still much work is ahead and we have to move fast. 60,000 people are looking to us for help! Immediate dangers now are infections, water borne diseases, dengue, cold and flues. Hunger, thirst and lack of basic goods are still a big problem. People need to get started with their lives again. We have had the amazing grace that the expected super typhoon not only passed us by but also weakened so that we were spared enormous new suffering.Thanks to everyone who prayed with us.

Many areas are still flooded. The house of one of my friends is still waist-deep in water. San Jose in Montalban Rizal still has knee deep mud in the paths. But we are making headway with our relief operation. And that is thanks to you who have donated so generously this week. We now have one watersystem being installed and ready to go on Monday. The second one is ordered and will be installed as soon as the first one is operational. Just one more to go after that.
We purchased the complete set of equipment for 10 soup kitchens. We couldn’t find gas cylinders but Anna Whitehouse of Total came to the rescue. 20 gas cylinders will be delivered tomorrow before lunch. We were able to provide thousands of relief packages to the affected families. Medical missions were supported and numerous donations of clothes, mats and blankets were delivered. Buckets, toilet paper, hand sanitizers, soap, laundry soap and so many many other items were distributed. Linda Dalison organized sacks of charcoal. What a great idea. Though the people who delivered it did looked like chimney sweepers in the process. We found special charcoal ovens for just PHP 150 (3 USD) to go with the charcoal. A great, cheap solution for fast access to cooking facilities. People cooked eggs for the people (what a great quick resource of nutrients). We had 200 cooked meals delivered by Jop Melrose and two boxes of eggs by Margie Hall. Irene Faber and Paul Retzlaf came with us to deliver goods. We are getting help with up-dating our website and setting up a PayPal payment facility through our website. Hopefully by Monday it will be done.

Alison Doig Henderson has connected us to so many organizations that it is hard to count them all. The Red Cross (yey! they are finally coming in!) will send 10 doctors plus nurses and 2 vans full of medicines tomorrow! Sarah, my daughter’s good friend, from the red cross organized this for us. We are expecting a troop from Malaysia to come in tomorrow, who are expert volunteers for emergency relief, to help us bring relief to the people. All this will make it possible for them to function again.

The German Klub came in with PHP 100.000 and forwarded our plea for help to all their members. One donor sent us USD 2000 which we used for the soup kitchen equipment and mats and blankets etc. Financial Times provided the funding for the first water filter systems. Sykes provided hundreds of relief bags. People have been so generous it is overwhelming. Le Delice provided 20 buckets filled with relief goods and two trucks to deliver goods to Papaya Academy for distribution. Employees of Accenture have donated personally.

Pan de Manila sent 12,000 pan de sals (a local bun). I can’t name everyone but we are putting a list together which we will publish on our website. The people loved it and also the eggs and fruits because they gave them an immediate nutrition boost. We helped Craig of the Papaya Academy get ready for the onslaught of the super typhoon. Stock piles of food blankets, cardboard (to sleep on) water, flash lights etc. were delivered on Friday to help care for the 1200 people who were expected to come for shelter at Papaya. A few hundred came when it started to rain but luckily the typhoon passed by and they were able to return to their homes. Everyone was frightened because the damage of the rain from the previous week made us panic with the thought of what was yet to come. It is so quiet here now as if the entire city is breathing a sigh of relief.

We are starting to have time to strategically organize the relief. We are sourcing the goods from China town and manufacturers to get better prices. We need to move fast to keep people healthy or it will become very very expensive if they get sick.
Please continue to donate we need to continue to provide for people who have lost everything, clean up the area and work on long term solutions for the people there. I will tell you more about it but first let me give you our accounts again.

Name: Springboard Foundation
Please put your name in the narrative and e mail us info about your donation so that we can send you an official donation receipt

Bitte im Vermerk “Fuer Springboard Manila” angeben. Spendenquittung bitte per e mail anfordern

In kind donations can be dropped off at:
Linda Dalison: Mobile 0918 8454189: at 1716 Dasmarinas Ave. Dasmarinas Village, Makati

Annette Helbig: Mobile 0916 4474951 at 15 Melbourne St. Merville Park, Paranaque

Sarah Willey: Mobile 09209207883 at 118 Sarangani St., Ayala Alabang

The photos show some of our volunteers, the Papaya Academy as it is prepared for the onslaught of the super typhoon, the flood basin where informal settlers from Manila have been resettled (that should never have happened), areas full of mud and people trying to clean their belonging in a little stream.