DICID and QRC Drive to Help Philippines Typhoon-Hit

16 Jan DICID and QRC Drive to Help Philippines Typhoon-Hit

The Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) has launched a campaign to mobilise QR8.5mn as part of its humanitarian efforts to help victims of the recent typhoon that wreaked havoc in the northern and eastern regions of Mindanao island in the Philippines.

Close to 1,100 people were killed and almost the same number injured in the storm, which was one of the largest natural disasters to hit the southeast Asian country in the last two decades. The heavy rains and strong winds led to catastrophic flooding and deadly landslides affecting more than 211,500 people.

The typhoon destroyed more than 7,720 homes and caused extensive damage to nearly 25,000 buildings.

The QRC, in co-operation with the Doha Centre for Inter-Faith Dialogue (Dicid) and the Philippines embassy in Qatar, is on a mission to raise financial and material assistance for victims of the disaster.

At a briefing yesterday, the parties reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the target through liberal assistance from local communities.

The campaign ‘From Qatar to the Philippines’ aims to highlight the damage caused by the disaster in order to mobilise voluntary contributions in cash and kind for providing continued support to QRC’s disaster relief activities.

QRC executive director, Saleh al-Mohannadi, expressed hope that the society could meet the requirements of at least 5,000 families affected by the disaster.

“Already $100,000 has been allocated to support our urgent interventions to provide emergency relief and our teams are currently through their mission, distributing food and non-food items, providing shelter, health-care services and clean water to the victims,” he said.

The QRC is also planning to send a special medical unit in co-operation with the Philippines Red Cross to continue providing life-saving medical care, al-Mohannadi revealed.

Dicid chairman Dr Ibrahim al Naimi said his centre is seeking to be a role model in achieving peaceful co-existence between followers of different religions. “Strengthening the solidarity between religions is more required these days than ever before. It is high time practical steps are made to save human societies,” he said.

The Philippines Ambassador, Crescente Relacion, appreciated the humanitarian efforts being made by Qatar to help the disaster-hit in his country. “We at the Philippines embassy offer all possible facilities for the success of the campaign as we convey our gratitude to QRC, which is providing relief services in the affected areas in co-operation with the Philippines National Red Cross.”

The envoy added that his mission is extremely pleased to work with the Dicid to achieve the targets in the shortest possible time. Relacion said the embassy was already collecting immediate relief materials for the victims.

More information on the campaign could be found on the QRC website. A Facebook account is also dedicated to the typhoon victims.