Philippines: Typhoon “Hagupit” – Malteser International prepares emergency assistance
Malteser International in close cooperation with the Philippine association of the Order of Malta is assessing the situation on the ground and preparing to provide assistance and to bring food, hygiene articles and medicines to the affected areas.
“In the villages in the province of Samar, where we have helped families rebuild since Haiyan, the people who live near the water have found refuge with friends and relatives,” says Krisetya, Malteser International partner program coordinator in the Philippines. People have also found refuge in the new disaster resistant houses built by Malteser International and the Philippine association after typhoon “Haiyan” had destroyed the villages. “All these houses built in a safer place, away from the water and on higher ground have resisted the typhoon”, Krisetya says. “In each house we could provide safe shelter for five to six families.”
This time, the Philippine population had been prepared: More than 700,000 people had been evacuated in time and have found refuge in more than 1,500 evacuation centres. Typhoon “Hagupit” has made first landfall on Samar, an island in the Visayas, late in the evening of Saturday 6 December.
Typhoon “Hagupit” has come just 13 months after Typhoon ‘Haiyan” killed more than 7,000 people and damaged or destroyed more than one million homes. After Typhoon “Haiyan” Malteser International and the Order of Malta Philippines also provided emergency resistance and still support reconstruction and rehabilitation on the islands of Samar and Bantayan.