Want to help and donate cash for relief operations for Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) but don’t really know how or where to go? The Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF) has launched HelpPH (help.ph), a global campaign for donations via mobile load to help fund programs for relief and reconstruction in partnership with international organizations, Philippine NGOs, government agencies and private companies.
Whether you’re in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Australia, Qatar, US and Canada (and other countries), you can use your mobile phone and SMS your cash donation directly to PDRF through BayadLoad, a mobile money service of Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) approved by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the Philippine Central Bank) for this purpose. Of course those in the Philippines can also donate via Help.PH.
You can also donate through the net using various sites such as Aryty, Ezetop, Oks Pinoy, etc. which accepts different modes of payment like credit card, bank transfer, or PayPal.
Help.PH is a very informative campaign dedicated to helping Typhoon Yolanda victims by pooling donation from individuals from other countries. To know more about the details on how to help, visit http://help.ph/howtohelp.html.
“œThe unprecedented scale of the devastation inflicted by Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda requires a global response. Through HelpPh, we are providing people all over the world the means to send help to those in greatest need through a few clicks on their mobile phones,” said PDRF chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan.
Through Philippine and international partners, funds gathered will be directly channeled to immediate relief efforts and later, to long-term recovery programs in areas of the greatest need.
For this purpose, PDRF is firming up cooperative arrangements with organizations like the Philippine Red Cross, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Caritas Manila, Philippine Business for Social Progress, Gawad Kalinga, the United States Agency for International Development and the GSMA, the global association of the mobile phone industry.
Immediate relief operations will be prioritized for remote areas not reached by mainstream relief distribution. Corporate members will be tapped to provide transport, logistics and communications support to enabletimely coordination of relief efforts by government and relief agencies.
Initial partners for this effort include Alagang Kapatid Foundation, Caritas Manila, PLDT-Smart Foundation, Maynilad Water Services, Philippine Red Cross and TV5 network.
For shelter and resettlement, PDRF will work with various partners including Gawad Kalinga, Habitat for Humanity, One MERALCO Foundation and Philippine Contractors Association (PCA).
To provide education for displaced school children, PDRF will help implement innovative learning programs, including mobile learningsystems, in cooperation with the Department of Education, the Central Visayas Institute Foundation and the GSMA.
To sustain the recovery efforts, PDRF and its partners will promote livelihood through emergency employment programs, labor-intensive projects, technical-vocational skills training and enterprise development.
Meanwhile, the microfinance sector will be tapped to help create sustainable livelihood that would give affected families a chance to start anew. Initial partners are the Philippine Business for Social Progress, ASA Philippines, CARD MRI, Microcredit Council of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines. PDRF is also holding discussions with the United Nations-International Labor Organization and Oxfam to pursue collaborative efforts in these areas.
PDRF was organized in 2009 following the devastation caused by Typhoon Ketsana/Ondoy and is made up of major private sector companies and leading NGOs.