{"id":289,"date":"2014-04-25T16:48:30","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T15:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/wordpress\/?p=289"},"modified":"2014-04-25T16:48:30","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T15:48:30","slug":"helping-hands-for-tacloban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/?p=289","title":{"rendered":"Helping Hands for Tacloban"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t normally repost (actually, up to now, I’ve never reposted) other people’s blog posts here – but, in this case, I’m going to make an exception. \u00a0You can read the original article here:\u00a0http:\/\/helpinghandsfortacloban.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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Article by Helen Walker, reposted with permission.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago a colleague in America helped me out at work.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know each other, we\u2019d never spoken but she was one of just a few people who responded when I asked for help and because of her input, others followed.\u00a0 Her name was Jackie Duerr.<\/p>\n

I changed roles and our paths didn\u2019t cross again until, on the 11th\u00a0November, she published a blog post on our company intranet.\u00a0 You can see the post\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0 It was 3 days after the super typhoon that hit the Philippines and Jackie\u2019s family had been in the middle of it.\u00a0 I cried, I donated to the Red Cross and I sent as many positive thoughts as I could in the right direction.\u00a0 A month later, an email was sent around saying Jackie was collecting things to be shipped direct to her family.\u00a0 There are A LOT of people in her family, so I got\u00a0my<\/em>\u00a0family involved and took a few sacks with me up to London for the collection.\u00a0 Then mostly, I forgot.\u00a0 I assumed that things were getting back on track over there and that was that.<\/p>\n

In March I came across charity asking for volunteers to help in the Philippines.\u00a0 I contacted Jackie.\u00a0 Was there really still a need for help?\u00a0 Was the charity one she knew of?\u00a0 Were they actually making a difference to people like her family?<\/p>\n

Jackie responded in a matter of hours and what she told me made me sad, angry and wanting to help.\u00a0 Bodies were still being found.\u00a0 Some international aid was already being withdrawn, with more to follow in the coming weeks and months.\u00a0 Huge numbers of people were still living in tents.\u00a0 Schools had been partially or completely destroyed.\u00a0 Livelihoods had been lost.\u00a0 Jackie sent me a link to\u00a0Kusog Tacloban<\/a>, the group she and some friends had set up to get help to those on the ground when politics proved an issue for others.\u00a0 They\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0stuff.\u00a0 And they all had family, or lived in Tacloban.\u00a0 I wrote back to ask if there was anything I could do, from here and on the ground there.<\/p>\n

And that is how this blog was born.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve not got all the details sorted yet.\u00a0 We know that we\u2019re probably going to be helping a school in a place called Candahug, which is near Tacloban.\u00a0 We\u2019re also going to help support some of the widows who need to learn and earn a livelihood now their husbands and breadwinners have been lost (many stayed to protect their homes while the women and children sheltered in evacuation centres, a large number of these men lost their lives).<\/p>\n

Rather than wait until everything is known and this blog is perfect, we thought you\u2019d like to join us on our journey.\u00a0 Jackie will be putting me in touch with people in Tacloban and we can meet them together and see where we can all help. And, even better, we can follow together where we\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0help through the visits Jackie and I are making (Jackie in June \/ July, me in August). \u00a0I\u2019m learning as I go along \u2013 Jackie is a great teacher. I\u2019ve used the pages at the top to give you some background on the key things I thought you\u2019d want to know.<\/p>\n

With almost no media coverage it\u2019s easy to remain unaware that there are people who genuinely need our help to put their lives back together so they can look after themselves and each other.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to make a donation, at the moment it is a little complex as\u00a0Kusog Tacloban<\/a>\u00a0is going through the process to become a registered charity.\u00a0 If you would like to give now, the instructions are\u00a0here<\/a>. If you mention \u2018Helping Hands\u2019 specifically, the money will go directly to the projects Jackie and I work on. \u00a0(Please note: every penny will go to those on the ground.\u00a0 The trips Jackie and I are making are entirely self funded).<\/p>\n

You can wait though, find out more of what we\u2019re doing and, when charity status is given we\u2019ll create a Just Giving page.\u00a0 For now though, we\u2019d mostly like you to follow this blog (there\u2019s a \u2018Follow\u2019 button on the top right of this page) and maybe our\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0too.\u00a0 Let us know how we\u2019re doing, and give us your ideas and if there\u2019s something you want to find out about, let us know and we\u2019ll blog about it if we can.<\/p>\n

There have been a lot of pieces of the puzzle that got me here but I like to think that what goes around comes around.\u00a0 Jackie helped me out, now it\u2019s my turn to help her.\u00a0 We\u2019d love it if you could help us.<\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n

Helen \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 and \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Jackie
\n\"helen\"<\/a>\u00a0\"jackie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t normally repost (actually, up to now, I’ve never reposted) other people’s blog posts here – but, in this case, I’m going to make an exception. \u00a0You can read the original article here:\u00a0http:\/\/helpinghandsfortacloban.wordpress.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.45rpmsoftware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}