‘Everybody wants to help’

MANILA, Philippines - In Germany, the devastation from Super Typhoon Yolanda was front-page and prime-time news for nearly two weeks, and as of Thursday last week, according to German officials, private citizens continued to chip in an average daily total of one million euros for the relief effort in the Philippines.

Last Sunday night in the Norwegian capital Oslo, a torchlight procession was held by citizens led by Culture Minister Thorhild Widwey, who braved the winter cold to attend a fund-raising live concert at the National Theater for Yolanda victims.

Reports said the event raised 16 million kroner – more than $2.6 million at yesterday’s rates.

Over two weeks after Yolanda struck, sympathy and aid continue to pour in from around the world for the typhoon-ravaged areas of the Visayas.

“Everybody wants to help,” acting German head of mission in Manila Joern Rohde told The STAR yesterday. “Maybe it’s because Germans understand the pain of losing everything… the German public is very responsive to these appeals by the different organizations.”

The German government has contributed $8 million in typhoon aid coursed through the German Red Cross in Manila, while private citizens in Germany have donated another $60 million so far from their own pockets, said Rohde, who was sent to Manila from his post in India to supervise their embassy’s typhoon relief operations. Rohde will be here for a month until a new ambassador arrives.

Also yesterday, Israel turned over a field hospital to an Austrian/German non-government organization in Bogo City as well as the reconstructed Bogo Central School 1 to the school administration.

Senior officials of the Israeli Defense Forces are in the Visayas to assist in the relief and reconstruction efforts. Yesterday’s rites were attended by Ambassador Menashe Bar On and Bogo City Mayor Celestino Espinosa Martinez Jr.

Israeli medical doctors have treated nearly 2,000 affected residents in Cebu since they set up a field hospital in the province two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the Peace Ark hospital ship of China arrived in Leyte Gulf last Sunday, also to provide medical aid to typhoon victims. The ship is moored at an anchorage in the gulf about 10 nautical miles off typhoon-ravaged Tacloban City.

On board the ship are more than 100 doctors, 200 support staff and 35 tons of medical supplies.

The staff of the Peace Ark will also set up a field hospital in the disaster area to receive patients and transfer them to the ship for further treatment. They will also send epidemic-prevention teams to affected areas.

Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing was in Leyte last Sunday to coordinate with Philippine counterparts in facilitating China’s medical aid.

“China’s dispatch of two Red Cross teams, a government emergency rescue team and the Peace Ark hospital ship to the Philippines marks a significant chapter in China’s history of post-disaster assistance overseas,” Ma said.

“This will be the first medical ship to arrive in the Philippines and we are looking forward to it playing a bigger role in boosting and providing emergency medical care,” she added.

Meanwhile, Wilbur-Ellis, an international marketer and distributor of agricultural products and farm inputs, donated $25,000 to the Philippines Relief Fund through the American Red Cross.

The company has been operating in the Philippines since 1898 through its Connell Brothers Division, and currently has offices in Manila, Cebu, and Davao City with over 100 employees.

“We’re grateful that our employees (in the Philippines) were unharmed during this catastrophic event, and we’re also grateful to be able to financially assist the communities during their relief efforts,” said John Thacher, president and CEO of Wilbur-Ellis.

UNICEF: Don’t donate infant formula

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) cautioned that there should be no donations of breast milk substitutes such as infant formula, milk products, bottle-fed complementary foods, juices, teas, bottles and teats for infants under six months and children up to two years of age.

In a statement, Unicef’s Nutrition Cluster warned that the use of feeding bottles only adds to the risk of infection as they are difficult to clean thoroughly and that bottled water is not sterile.

The cluster also stressed that many infants and young children could be exposed to “increased risk of infectious disease, malnutrition and death, especially from diarrhea when clean water is scarce.”

Should there be donations of breast milk substitutes, these should be coursed through the nearest office of the Department of Health or local health office, the cluster added.

Unicef is urging mothers in affected areas to breastfeed their babies because it could strengthen the infants’ resistance to infection.

“The valuable protection from infection and its consequences that breast milk confers is all the more important in environments without safe water supply and sanitation,” the cluster said.

Organized aid coordination urged

Meanwhile, French Ambassador Gilles Garachon said that France created last week the organization Philippines-France United Action (PFUA) to coordinate the aid from the French community.

“We decided to create last week an organization called PFUA to coordinate the aid of French community. So far the amount of aid is already reaching 10 million euros. It is a lot of money already involved. This effort is just beginning and we shall do a lot more,” Garachon said.

A member of the French Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines also urged the Philippine government to clearly identify the main agency coordinating aid for typhoon victims.

“Who is going to coordinate because a lot of aid are coming in. Who is the big boss handling that? Who in the Philippine side is doing all that? If everybody comes on one side it would be a big mess in the end,” said Roger Ferrari, managing director of Pacific Hemisphere Development that is involved in the relief efforts of the French government and business community in the Philippines.

“Who is in charge? For us (logistics) it is the CAAP but for things like hospital etc, who in the Philippines is coordinating that?” he added.

Agreement on US increased presence pushed

In a related development, visiting members of the US House of Representatives strongly pushed for the framework agreement on the increased rotational presence of US troops in the Philippines, saying that the negotiation will be given a boost as a direct result of US response to the devastation brought by Yolanda.

The Increased Rotational Presence is a policy which increases the presence of US forces on a rotational basis in the Philippines towards the development of a minimum credible defense posture.

New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, head of the US congressional delegation, said that they are very much in favor of the strongest possible bond between the US military and the Philippine military in every aspect, citing that the negotiation on the policy is underway.

“I think in a paradoxical way the storm has brought all of us even closer together. We realized the friendship and we must preserve it at all cost. So I think every other – including the economic and all the other ongoing negotiations – will all be given a positive boost as a direct result of this,” Smith said in a press conference at the Department of Foreign Affairs after a courtesy call on Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario.

Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona added that the US is committed to the strong historical commitment between the Philippine and the US military. –  With Sheila Crisostomo, Pia Lee-Brago