|
CRS to Commit $280,000 to Leyte Victims
(28 March 2006) - The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has announced that it expects to commit more than U.S. $280,000 to help the families of the victims of Guinsaugon, St. Bernard, Southern Leyte. More than one-third of this funding has already been raised, said a CRS Staff.
To date, CRS and its partner Caritas are providing rice, sleeping mats, canned goods, soap, and milk children, and among other essentials to the countless families left homeless.
CRS is bringing its shelter expert, Graham Saunders, to the affected region to develop a strategy for relocating more than 300 families to permanent housing.
According to the CRS, relocation of these families is their top priority and the construction of permanent houses will begin in the next few weeks.
CRS has already begun searching for a safe location to begin construction.
Plea for help
The said village was buried under more than a billion cubic meters of mud on February 14. As of February 28, authorities have confirmed that 972 more bodies were still missing and feared dead. Damages are totaling between $3 million and $4 million.
At the height of the search and rescue operations, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president archbishop Angelo N. Lagdameo immediately called on the social action directors of every diocese to coordinate all efforts and resources under the headship of the National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA).
"This way we can more efficiently harness our disaster response programs and rehabilitation initiatives for the families of the victims of this calamity," he said.
In a statement, NASSA then appealed on parishioners to solicit assistance in behalf of the mudslide victims in St. Bernard Parish.
Lagdameo also directed the clergy in seeking the intercession of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary to console the country from the catastrophe and bestow eternal rest unto those who perished.
Fr. Juanito Figura, acting secretary general of the CBCP, has also said that the bishops gratefully appreciate and heartened by the support, gestures and sympathy that come from people within and outside the country
Humanitarian agency
CRS, the official international humanitarian agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), has been working in the Philippines since 1945 when it was tasked to do relief and reconstruction after the Second World War.
To date, CRS continues to provide relief to victims of natural and man-made emergencies, as well as gave support to ongoing programs in peace, health education and job creation.
|
