How You Can Help The Haiyan Victims

Just a short post today. I nixed my earlier post due to the state of how things are in the Philippines currently.

Taken from The Star

So far, there’s been an overwhelming amount of donations from the international community. The Philippines—especially the Visayans—are thankful. But it still isn’t enough. If you can spare something of yours, here are a few ideas of how you can help out.

1. Donate cash. There are literally thousands of ways you can donate your money. You can give some cash through SMS, through Paypal, or even through select banks and convenience stores. Some establishments are even kind enough to set dates wherein all of their net sales are donated to the relief efforts: Yabu and Tito Panadero are some of them. And musicians like Wolfgang and The Dawn are setting up benefit concerts for the same. Seriously, what’s your excuse?
2. Donate ready-to-eat food. Noodles and rice are staple foods in the country, but you gotta remember that there’s no source of readily potable water in the hardest-hit areas. Neither is there electricity, as of the moment. So preserved foods will go a long way in helping the people get back to their feet.
3. Given #2, donate water.
4. Create awareness. A lot of the readers of my blog are marketers, both online and off. You guys have big networks. Use that to your advantage. Some of these guys might want to help, but don’t know how, and that’ll keep them from actually moving. Share what you know of the relief operations, and educate them as to which avenue of donating is a good avenue, and which isn’t.
5. Donate clothes. A lot of the folks had their entire lives torn apart by Typhoon Yolanda. Property damage is pretty ghastly. Weed out your closet, and instead of throwing away those old chinos, consider giving them away to charity.
6. Sell your stuff. This is connected to #s 1 and 5. If you’d prefer to raise the cash to donate, hold a garage sale for the things that you don’t really use any more. Get your friends to help out! They might be more than willing to give away some of their old junk. Then give the money you raise to charity.
7. Donate medicines. Stick to the basics. Paracetamol, mefenamic acid, iodine, alcohol, and hydrogen peroxide are good choices.
8. And finally, weed out the bogus / corrupt relief venues. There will be tons of these, since goods and cash are literally flowing into the country. It won’t be easy to keep track of the logistics of it all. If there’s any way you can keep an eye on where the money’s going, then you’re doing everybody a favor.

I’d like to end this post on a personal note. I’ve been stuck in a flooded building before, and I know how tough it gets; I can only just imagine what those folks are going through. Don’t let the ball stop with you. Share what you know with your friends and family. Let’s make sure our kababayans in the Visayas know we’re not leaving them behind.