Perth-based Catholic groups have rallied to help Filipinos devastated by Typhoon Haiyan.
An estimated four million people have been affected by the typhoon which struck the county’s eastern islands on November 8, with deaths estimated at upwards of 10,000.
Local Somascan priests have shared appeal reports reflecting the full scale of the devastation from their confreres in the region.
“Thousands dead and are dying, no shelter left to come home, helplessness and a sense of despair linger in people’s faces,” one of the reports said.
Somascans based in the Philippines will give financial donations they collect directly to Archbishop John Du, the bishop of Leyte, one of the country’s worst affected islands.
Ruby Soh, organiser for the Perth-based Filipino charity Buckets for Jesus, was at the epicentre of the disaster in the two weeks prior to November 8 when the typhoon hit.
The charity distributed donated goods to communities still reeling from October 15’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake which claimed 107 lives on Leyte’s neighbouring island of Bohol.
“It was traumatic to come back and see this happening again,” the Philippines-born Mrs Soh,
who witnessed many of the earthquake’s aftershocks during the trip, told The Record. “Government agencies find it difficult to reach rural communities but we were able to do it, to find another route.”
“We gave them goods and prayed with people and uplifted them. Their homes had been destroyed by the earthquake and we were very, very worried about them because they had been living in tents.”
Mrs Soh and her team are preparing to return in around a week’s time with two more containers of goods donated by people in Western Australia and Singapore.
Buckets for Jesus works through a network of local parishes, using land vehicles and a boat to reach isolated communities.
“The containers are not filled up yet but we are hoping that they will. We’re just going to do it by faith and believe that kindhearted people will come through,” Mrs Soh said.
More information is available at the group’s website www.bucketsforjesus.org and their Facebook page HELP: Typhoon Haiyan or by calling 9388 9677.