Taking the Philippines completely unaware, Typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) brought the island of Luzon a record 13 inches of rain in eight hours, and death and destruction with it.
So far, nearly 100 people are confirmed dead, over 40 missing and 340,000, displaced in Metro Manila and surrounding regions. Among the victims are many members of the Philippine advertising, marketing, media and design industries.
With widespread power outages and interruption of broadcast and telecommunications, the events of September 26 almost went unreported on mass media. However on Twitter and Facebook–where as many as five million Filipinos congregate (over five thousand of them, members of adobo’s online community)–there was a non-stop barrage of reports, pleas and most importantly, offers for help.
Within 24 hours, several groups were mobilized to fill the gaps in the government’s relief efforts.
Both ABS-CBN and GMA Network held Sunday telethons, with their news anchors, TV presenters and celebrities manning the phones. ABS-CBN raised PHP20M in cash pledges and PHP25M in goods during its live broadcast event. GMA Network’s total proceeds have not yet been released.
Radio station Jam 88.3 teamed up with the Philippine design community, led by Team Manila’s Jowee Alviar, for Design Downpour, a volunteer coalition that accepts donations of food, water, clothing as well as creativity to raise more relief funds.
AKO MISMO, a national movement spearheaded by DDB Cares, joined Caritas Manila and World Vision in generating support for the typhoon victims. Adobo’s own neighbor, the gallery Whitespace, became a drop-off point for donations and a hub for volunteers.
With so many people still in need of rescue, these and other efforts are ongoing, and still in need of your support. Please click here for ways to help.
To see more reasons why you should donate your time, ideas and resources to the relief efforts, watch the following videos:
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