Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

Typhoons and monsoon rains have become very common in the Philippines that people have grown accustomed to having these tropical storms come one after the other especially during the rainy season. That is the predictable part.

Last year, a combination of the deadliest typhoons to hit the country brought an almost unimaginable catastrophe and caused the loss of millions of pesos worth of properties, livelihood and root crops, not to mention the hundreds of lives lost. The fact that only nature knows where and when typhoons would hit brings the unpredictable part.

If one positive thing came out of the typhoons Ondoy, Pepeng and Santi collective experience in 2009, it is that the Filipino diaspora came in full force to help the motherland rebuild. Donations in cash or in kind poured in from across the globe. Such was the much-needed impetus for the creation of Handang Tumulong Foundation, Inc., a "Ready to Help" natural disaster fund. This, officials hope, would be the one constant thing when uncertainties brought about the storms happen.

The community’s generosity last year raised $77,921 and the foundation readily remitted the amount to various humanitarian organizations to conduct relief and rehabilitation work in Marikina City, Pasig City, Laguna, Bulacan, Rizal, Pangasinan, Benguet, lIocos Sur, and all other affected areas.

The funds also made possible the shipment via air and sea of 126 balikbayan boxes of relief goods (towels, bed sheets, clothes, medicines, canned goods, medical supplies) and sent to beneficiaries in Marikina City, Rizal, Laguna, Pangasinan, and other affected areas through various Philippine-based NGOs.

The foundation’s actual inception happened a year earlier, in June 2008, when typhoon Frank pummeled the Philippines and left a lot of damage. As a knee-jerk response to the dire situation back home, the Filipino American community in the Northeastern Region USA, with the Philippine Consulate General in New York at the helm, mobilized to raise funds for assistance to the Philippines.

This was when "Project Tulong" first came to light, and this ad hoc entity was able to raise around $50,000. This was distributed directly to provinces that were hardest hit by the typhoon (e.g. Iloilo, Masbate, Aklan, Samar, etc.)

Community leaders brainstormed and learned a lesson from this situation, coming up with the idea of being more proactive, instead of just being reactive. With Consul General Cecilia B. Rebong as adviser, this need eventually led to the creation of the "Handang Tumulong" Disaster Relief Fund, a readiness project that hopes to be able to send immediate assistance to the Philippines in the event of future calamities visiting the Philippines again.