Friends in the Field

This week, two delegates from the European Commission came to witness the destruction and see the need first hand. ECHO, the European Commission’s humanitarian aid office, supports UNICEF’s typhoon response with approximately $1.3million. They visited the health post of Tanauan, a particularly hard-hit community a bit South of Tacloban.

Even more than two months after the typhoon, the images one has to witness here are still dramatic. The whole hospital completely destroyed, furniture, equipment, supplies, all devastated, and since it is pouring here since three weeks, now most parts of it under water.

The colleagues from „Doctors without Borders“ are doing an awesome job here. They set up a mobile hospital which really deserves applause. First-class equipment enables the patients to be treated in dignity. I am most impressed by the tent with the beds – it is dark and soundproofed, I get the feeling that patients can really recover here.

UNICEF helps with latrines and other equipment, and it is just great to see how here in the field the organizations are working hand in hand, even if “back at home” we are competitors for donor funds. As I am writing this blog in our office space, there is an education meeting happening next to me on Saturday afternoon, and I see colleagues from Save the Children, Intersos, and other organizations.

This cooperation needs to be rewarded and supported, and therefore, when you are next time clicking a button to donate to UNICEF, maybe you also want to do the same not only for the above-mentioned organizations, but also the Red Cross, UNHCR, WFP, Plan, ACF and all the other organizations that give their very best to help the suffering people in the Philippines. :-)

 

 

Didier Assal, the colleagues from „Doctors without Borders“ on the left, has a website with impressive photos from Tacloban and many other locations around the world he already served in: http://dimaki.smugmug.com/Typhon-Yolanda-Philippines-201