CDRC helps Filipino communities help themselves

Photo credit: Bullit Marquez (AP)

UPDATE 15 NOV 1130ET: FBB is adding a second crisis beneficiary. CDRC will receive the first $50,000 of our donation drive; Team Rubicon, an outstanding organization of military veterans repurposing their skills for disaster relief, will receive the rest.

In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, Foundation Beyond Belief’s Humanist Crisis Response program is collecting donations in support of CITIZENS’ DISASTER RESPONSE CENTER, a community-based relief organization in the Philippines that is working to provide food, water, medicine, shelter kits, sleeping kits, and hygiene kits. As of Friday morning, the FBB community has raised more than $50,000 for CDRC’s relief efforts, the largest sum raised by our Humanist Crisis Response program to date. 100 percent of all donations up to $50,000 will be forwarded to CDRC throughout the course of the drive. The remainder will be forwarded to Team Rubicon. Click here to contribute.

Our crisis beneficiary, CDRC, is a pioneer in community-based disaster management in the Philippines. The Philippines has been called the country most vulnerable to natural disaster, making crisis-response infrastructure absolutely essential. CDRC’s 2011 annual report describes their focus on helping people help themselves in times of crisis.

Aid has been slow to come to the Philippines. Damaged roads and airports are making it hard to deliver food, water, and medicine where they are needed most. According to the mayor of Tacloban, one of the hardest-hit cities, they must make hard choices about how best to deploy their limited resources. “The choice is to use the same truck either to distribute food or collect bodies.” A week after the storm hit, survivors are still in desperate need of food and medicine.

To support the desperately needed relief efforts of CDRC and Team Rubicon, click here.