Thanks to generous donors like you, planned projects are now funded. Gifts towards our International Disaster Relief work will be used where most needed in a disaster or emergency situation.

In November 2013, 14 million people in 58 cities across the Philippines were utterly devastated by Typhoon Haiyan.  It triggered landslides, uprooted trees, and destroyed homes and entire communities as it quickly moved across the archipelago, killing thousands and displacing over a million people.

Samaritan’s Purse immediately mobilised a relief effort, chartering a jumbo jet to airlift 100 tons of emergency supplies to the Philippines. Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) workers were immediately on the ground in areas of severe devastation. In the days following, resources and responders were mobilized to form a multinational team of 149 experts focused on immediate relief for shelter, water, medicine, health, and food needs. The DART Team set up a base for administration and logistics in Cebu City and forward operations were coordinated through bases on Bantayan Island and in Tacloban City, a city of about 220,000 people on Leyte Island that was devastated by the typhoon.

Recovery and healing has begun, but more than 4 million people are still in need of basic necessities such as food, water and shelter. Necessary relief supplies such as rice, water filtration devices and temporary shelters are provided on a daily basis as families struggle to overcome their destroyed livelihoods.

As the initial relief phase comes to an end, our focus is shifting to fuelling long-term recovery in the affected areas. 280 families who lost their homes were given transitional shelters to protect them during the upcoming monsoon season as part of Samaritan’s Purse post-disaster relief and pre-livelihood development.

Samaritan’s Purse’s relief work will continue in the Philippines for at least the next 3 years, as we focus our efforts on help families recreate long-term, sustainable livelihoods.

Thanks to generous support, this work has already been funded.

Gifts that are now received for our Disaster and Emergency Relief work will be used where most needed in a disaster or emergency context. We are currently supporting the Ebola outbreak in Liberia refugees fleeing conflict in South Sudan.

Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Samaritan’s Purse is supplied ten large water filtration systems, four of which were funded by the UK office. Each costs £10,000, filters 10,000 gallons daily and supplies 2,500 beneficiaries. So the cost of supplying clean water is £4 per person.

Four filtration systems are now operational in Dulag, on Leyte Island.

The United Nations has asked Samaritan’s Purse to take the lead on sanitation in Tacloban.

We distributed 56,000 water purification tablets and 164 household water filters and 27,270 hygiene kits.

Shelter

3.6 million square feet of plastic for making tarps was carried on the 747 which arrived in Cebu city on 17 November.

16,943 Tarpaulins have been given to families, churches, and schools across Letye Island and on Bantayan.

10,000 full shelter kits containing metal roofing sheets, framing materials, and basic hand tools to homeless families.

10 chain saw teams are cutting toppled coconut trees into usable lumber for shelter units.

Medical

An 8-person medical team, which includes doctors and nurses, is working alongside the staff at the storm-damaged Schistosomiasis Control and Research Hospital in Palo to provide emergency health care to the community. Mobile medical teams are treating people in remote areas. Our team has treated over 4,500 people. Medical workers are also providing vaccinations against measles and polio.

The U.S. Air Force helped set up a Samaritan’s Purse mobile field hospital on the grounds of the research hospital in Palo. Local radio stations are directing people to the expanded medical facility.

Food

According to The World Food Programme (WFP), Samaritan’s Purse was the first Disaster Relief charity to provide confirmed assistance to people after Typhoon Haiyan hit.

We have distributed 2,079 metric tons of food to struggling families; high-energy biscuits to children in 49 elementary schools; emergency food kits to 21,064 families.

Samaritan’s Purse also carried out a general food distribution in partnership with the World Food Programme, supplying 1,000 metric tons of rice to 20,000 families (100,000 people), and high energy biscuits to 3000 families on Bantayan.

Non Food Items

A 747 cargo aircraft carrying 65,000 Operation Christmas Child gift boxes a

rrived in Cebu City on 14 December. The shoebox gifts were distributed to children through local churches in affected areas.

Samaritan’s Purse has distributed 5,311 blankets as well as mosquito nets.

Logistics

The team has secured three warehouses in Cebu City and a 6000 square foot warehouse in Tacloban. 34 vehicles (motorcycles, cargo trucks, pickup trucks and a fuel truck) have been purchased locally to assist with the transport and distribution of supplies. A bulldozer and a JCB are clearing debris on Bantayan Island.

Franklin Graham, President, Samaritan’s Purse, commented:

“I was just in the Philippines last week (Week of 25 Nov). I saw the horrendous damage inflicted by Typhoon Haiyan. The needs are huge. It’s going to take years to recover. My prayers are with the Filipino people who are suffering so much. I also saw the work the team is doing. We are providing water, food and shelter and helping to meet the critical medical needs. And we do it all in the Name of Jesus Christ, letting people know that He will see them through any storm.”

Samaritan’s Purse will continue the work it has started to bring relief and provide aid to those in desperate need, to restore hope in the region and to work alongside the people and churches in the Philippines to help them rebuild their lives. This work is already funded by generous donors.

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in him” (Nahum 1:7, ESV)