Enfant Terrible

Volunteering for typhoon Ketsana victims

“There’s nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer,” says a general in the movie Pearl Harbor. True enough, typhoon Ondoy (internationally nicknamed Ketsana) may have proven its might by destroying hundreds of lives and hundreds more in houses and properties, yet this monster-of-a-calamity did not win in devastating the faith and Good Samaritan-spirit of thousands of men and women, locals and foreigners alike.

If the storm was swift at reaching places as far as Vietnam, the international response and the wave of charity that followed is just as quick. Many volunteers, relief goods, and donations came from countries such as China, Israel, and the United States, and with such down pour of kindness, it’s hard not to get infected by the generosity bug. This is why we at the office immediately hopped into the first available volunteering caravan and signed up with Red Cross, which then assigned us to help at the relief center in White Space, Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City.

We actually have a lot of working days to catch up due to a string of non-working holidays prior to the storm. Two of our company members also actually lost all their belongings to the typhoon. Yet we as a company and a team got out of our way, like many individuals and groups did, as an expression of gratitude. Despite experiencing the whip of a menace, we are thankful that all of us in the office, together with our loved ones, are still complete. Perhaps, that is why were kept at perfect tip-top shape: to flex our muscles and spend a penny’s worth of time spreading the charity virus. That is exactly what we did at White Space.

Upon arrival at the center, we found that the deck is already full of volunteers, mostly young college students. At first, this made us feel that our help is no longer needed, but after around 30 minutes, donations in forms of sacks of rice, boxes of canned goods, and plastic loads of clothes came in, making everyone realize that the seemingly excessive number of volunteers is still actually insufficient.

What’s really memorable is that along with the volunteers from different organizations, there are also members of the Philippines’ richest families that did not only donate sacks and tons of goods and money, but actually dirtied their hands and clothes just to show that they care and that money isn’t always that matters. If the typhoon victimized people from all walks of life, it at least showed that people from all walks of life can also be humbled and be bundled together to rebuild.

The relief center was actually divided into sections: one for repacking rice, one for making beds out of cartons, and the rest for packing the donations into individual giant plastic bags. We spent the whole day until dusk trying our hands in all of the sections and their twin chores, and in spite watching thousands of finished packages being towed away for delivery, we cannot feel any sense of tiredness or hunger, as if we want to pack more.

In total, we were informed that we were able to pack more than 4,000 of the targeted 8,000 relief packages. When we got home after the stint and watched the news, we learned that every evacuation center (and there are around 20 to 30 of them) have an average of about 300,000 evacuees and typhoon victims. Hence, if you think 4,000 is already many, then think again.

Nonetheless, even if we pack just one or 4,000 really does not matter. As the popular saying goes, whatever you do even if it is little, as long as it comes from the heart, goes a long way.