More strategic and permanent relief plan

One of the outstanding traits of Filipinos admired all over the world is their community or bayanihan spirit. It is really admirable and inspiring to see Filipinos expressing their care and concern for those in need, their “pakikisama or pakikipagkapwa tao”. This facet of the Filipino character came out so beautifully especially last year when the devastating and ruinous typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng hit most parts of our country.

But as the Ondoy-Pepeng experience demonstrated, there was still so much room for improvement in our disaster relief operations. Apparently more typhoon victims could have been assisted more swiftly and efficiently if the operations were better organized. The bayanihan spirit was very apparent but people were doing their thing without coordination, and sometimes single-handedly.

Fortunately in the Philippines, the Rotary International, a worldwide service organization had already taken its roots. In ten Rotary Districts composed of more than a thousand Rotary clubs spread all over the country, Filipinos are enabled to use their community spirit for humanitarian “service above self” in a more coordinated and organized manner thus assuring concrete, effective, extensive and longer lasting assistance to those who are really in need of help not only in times of calamities but year in and year out.

Indeed, since the Philippines is ranked as one of the most disaster prone countries in the world by the Brussels-based Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, the Philippine Rotary found it necessary to develop a permanent disaster relief plan. This plan is really very significant and relevant because our country is one of the most affected by the climate change with an average of 20 storms per year. According to Past District Governor Lyne Abanilla of the Rotary Club of Intramuros who has been one of the Rotarians always at the frontline of Rotary’s relief efforts, the permanent plan has been conceived after realizing the necessity of a more strategic approach to disaster relief on a nationwide scale, following the tenth typhoon to hit the Philippines this year.

Hence, tomorrow, December 1, 2010, the Philippine College of Rotary Governors composed of Past and Present District Governors in the Philippines as well as local Rotary club leaders and   members are meeting at the Robinson’s Crowne Plaza Galleria in Quezon City, to discuss, define and work out this plan.

Gracing the affair tomorrow is no less than the Rotary International President-Elect Kalyan Banerjee of the Rotary Club of Vapi in Gujarat, 160 kms, north of Mumbai. Mr. Banerjee is a successful businessman from India, being a Director of United Phosphorous Ltd., one of the largest agrochemicals in India, and Uniphos Agro Industries Ltd. He is also the Chairman of United Phosphorous Bangladesh Ltd. He has been a Rotarian since 1972 and was President of his club in 1975-76. Kalyan became a District Governor of District 306 of India in 1980-81 and has served as Rotary International Director from Zone 5 and 6 in Asia in 1995-97. In 1997-98 he was the General Coordinator of Poverty and Hunger Alleviation Task Force that got Rotary’s low cost housing project started. From 2001 to 2005, he served as a Trustee of the Rotary Foundation, one of the world’s largest foundations dedicated to education, humanitarian service and world peace. He is married to Binota with two children and four grandchildren.

After this event tomorrow, Filipinos will really have a more effective and far reaching vehicle in expressing by deed more than by mere words, their care and concern for our country men in need and their sense of pakikiisa at pakikipagkapwa tao.

* * *

E-mail us at [email protected]