Everyone Wants to Help


Walking through Manila you wouldn't guess that elsewhere supertyphoon Haiyan has caused chaos and destruction. Until you open a newspaper. Every inch is dedicated to the typhoon and its aftermath. Everything that seemed important before has now been pushed aside. All the news is about aid. Day after day, I am touched by the stories.

In particular, I'm impressed with how people are helping each other. In the office of our partner organization, the Peace and Equity Foundation, are piles of stuff that people have donated. There are hundreds of bags of water, food, rice and soap on the patio. Unfortunately, some water bottles broke and some food got soaked. To prevent the rice and the soap from mixing, we took all the stuff out of the bags and sorted everything. Quite a job, but how could we complain?

With sweat running down my back I took a little note from one of the bags. A typed letter to wish the receiver courage in these difficult times and a small prayer for their family. I found a message on the can of food: "Always smile!”  Then I noticed that people had taken the trouble to write such messages on every single can.

Many people in Manila were hit indirectly – their friends or colleagues were hit. Students at the university have relatives in the area, who supported them financially. Their world has also fallen apart. Other students have begun to collect money to enable them to continue their studies. Everyone is contributing, through the church, through their companies, or through local NGOs. Everyone wants to help.

Crossposted from Cordaid website

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