It was 16th December 2021, starting late afternoon until about 930 h when Odette (Intl. code name Rai) visited the island of Bohol. In this short time the power transmission lines collapsed, communication towers damaged and worse, thousands were instantly homeless and with no livelihood.

Soon sketchy reports and short messages reached us. Unfortunately not much could be done to help but we realized there are people in need. After initial contacts with a local Swiss-Philippine Mission station we knew the island was in a serious situation.

A field trip could be made almost 3 weeks later, from 6-9 January 2022. Good news, life in Bohol is going on, bad news the poor and marginalized were hit the hardest. The already simple houses were destroyed, some down to the ground and overnight daily essentials were in question.

In Tagbilaran, the provincial capital the storm left behind visible traces yet with generators there is power and facilities are useable. From various regions 23 representatives, mostly youth,  were gathered at the church and discussion how to deal with the crisis led to a first step relief program. With present cash funds on hand the work could start the same evening to create 260 emergency food packs for distribution in 6 areas. However, in a group-work a need of almost 700 packs was calculated. We will see how to manage this in the coming days.

The next day a field trip to survey to locations in  Danao, Carmen and Dahan was undertaken and of course also the enormous need for rebuilding of homes determined.

This is now Bohol only. Our volunteer staff is en-route on similar mission in Surigao, Negros Oriental and Occidental, while in Cebu and Palawan smaller actions could be realized already.

Our hope is now in NAK-Humanitas of Switzerland, NAK-karitativ and HumaNAKtiv from Germany who are on a fundraising campaign for the Philippines.  Please support them.

Source: http://nacsearelief.org/

Pictures: Urs Hebeisen/Lucienne Hebeisen