Search results for: typhoon

FBB members and our community gave more than $124,000 last quarter to improve the lives of people around the world. Three of our featured charities, Roots and Wings International, Water Ecuador, and Apopo, will receive grants of more than $10,000 each. And your donations to our Humanist Crisis Response fund drive for immediate needs in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan surpassed all of our previous projects, raising $63,000 for Citizens’ Disaster Response Center and Team Rubicon. Many thanks to our members and supporters for making these life-changing grants possible.

Here’s a breakdown of fourth-quarter contributions: 

	Education Encore Beneficiary: Roots and Wings International	$11,195
	Poverty and Health: Co-grantees Water Ecuador and Pathfinders Project ($5,000 to Water Ecuador and $6,065 to cover Pathfinders Project’s  housing, food, travel, and other necessities while they are volunteering with Water Ecuador)	$11,065
	Human Rights: Apopo	$10,740
	The Natural World: Bat Conservation International	$9,640
	Challenge the Gap: Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice	$9,025
	Foundation Beyond Belief	$5,955
	Humanist Crisis Response:  Citizens’ Disaster Response Center Team Rubicon: Operation Seabird	$50,000 $13,970
	Small Grant: FBB Kiva Microfinance Initiative (Look for more information in the near future about how we’ll be engaging with Kiva)	$2,500
	TOTAL	$124,090

Q4 2013 beneficiary grants are distributed during the first quarter of 2014. Click here to learn more about our new slate of beneficiaries for the first quarter of 2014. And if you’re not yet a member of our Humanist Giving program, click here to join.

By AJ Chalom, Humanist Giving Program Coordinator

This year, Foundation Beyond Belief’s Humanist Crisis Response program was on a roller coaster, frequently called upon to respond to the constant trials facing our world. Crisis response is not something we at FBB want to do—but we need to do it. Our compassion drives us—and you, our members—to help, as we try to connect with the victims and imagine the pain that they endure.

In January, we reported on a significant hurricane, Bopha, that had slammed into the Philippines, leaving destruction in its wake. We did not launch a crisis drive, but suggested an organization to support. There was no way to know that these people would face an even more severe disaster within the year.

In May, a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, and surrounding communities. This crisis was on home soil, and perhaps it was that familiarity that resulted in a flood of donations from our members and community. We supported the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and Operation USA, two organizations that would be involved in the recovery effort long term. We heard stories of the devastation, and the world met Rebecca, before being able to comprehend the destruction to the world around her, in an interview that would change her life.

There are crises that occur in an instant, that we watch develop on the news in a raw, unexpected way. When these events occur, like the Moore tornado, we are compelled to jump into action. Others crises sneak up on you, building slowly over time. Sometimes they are across the globe, evolving and growing unnoticed by the wider world. The extreme refugee crisis created by the war in Syria is one such disaster. More than 7 million people have been displaced, many of them children. When the true scope of this disaster became clear, Foundation Beyond Belief could no longer ignore the humanitarian crisis and the pleas for assistance from international aid organizations. We turned to International Rescue Committee, which was already providing relief in a number of refugee areas. Each area had a different need: one needed clean water and sanitation, one needed shelter, others needed to protect residents or teach the children. Again, our members and supporters responded with donations that went to support the IRC in their work.  

In November, we could see another immanent crisis. We knew a typhoon was moving toward the Philippines. This is a country that faces 20 tropical storms a year and was already reeling from a recent devastating earthquake. Typhoon Haiyan was later described as the strongest hurricane to make landfall in recorded history. FBB staff researched aid organizations and chose a local disaster response team, Citizens’ Disaster Response Center, as the beneficiary of our crisis response fund drive. However, very little news was reaching us. Power, road access, adequate food, and clean water—all were wiped out in the hardest-hit areas across the country. Responders had to choose how to use their limited resources: bring in food or water, offer medical assistance, or remove dead bodies? They just couldn’t do it all. We added seasoned relief responders Team Rubicon as a beneficiary, supporting TR’s infrastructure and medical teams. Even Team Rubicon’s experienced volunteers were stunned by the magnitude of the disaster and summed it up in a few words: “It’s too much.”

As a member of the FBB staff who works with our Crisis Response program, those three words echo in me and drive me to help in the way that I can. Many thanks to members and our community for supporting our Humanist Crisis Response program in 2013. When we’ve sent out the call in times of crisis, your response has been swift and generous. As our world changes, we can expect more disasters in the coming year, both natural and manmade. Your continued support helps to provide clean water for refugees, shelter for the displaced, medicine for the injured. Thank you for helping us show humanist compassion in times of greatest need.

Photo credit: Bullit Marquez (AP)

In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, Foundation Beyond Belief’s Humanist Crisis Response program is collecting donations to support relief efforts in the Philippines. As of Tuesday morning, the FBB community has raised more than $61,000 for relief efforts. The first $50,000 raised was sent to CITIZENS’ DISASTER RESPONSE CENTER, a community-based relief organization in the Philippines. All additional funds raised are being sent to TEAM RUBICON, an organization that deploys military veterans for disaster relief. One hundred percent of all donations are being forwarded to our beneficiaries throughout the course of the drive. The drive ends November 30—click here to contribute.

The official death toll in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan has topped 5,000, and bodies are still being retrieved from the rubble. According to BBC, “It’s two weeks since the Typhoon hit and the bodies of thousands of victims have yet to be retrieved. Some are trapped under mangled homes and cars, others have washed up onto the banks of the sea. In some areas, they lie bloated and untouched by the side of the road, next to overturned cars and uprooted tree trunks.

Team Rubicon has deployed trained and qualified volunteers to Manila, Tacloban, and Carigara. According to Team Rubicon, their volunteers in Carigara are treating hundreds of patients and delivering babies at a field hospital. TR is also “coordinating daily with the World Health Organization and working with Relief International to ensure the ongoing needs of patients in Carigara will continue to be met once TR’s medical personnel return to the States.”

This crisis response drive ends on November 30—click here contribute, and visit our website to learn more about this crisis.

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Photo credit: Bullit Marquez (AP)

In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, Foundation Beyond Belief’s Humanist Crisis Response program is collecting donations to support relief efforts in the Philippines. The first $50,000 raised was sent to CITIZENS’ DISASTER RESPONSE CENTER, a community-based relief organization in the Philippines. All additional funds raised are being sent to TEAM RUBICON, an organization that deploys military veterans for disaster relief. As of Thursday morning, the FBB community has raised more than $60,000 for relief efforts in the Philippines. 100 percent of all donations will be forwarded to our beneficiaries throughout the course of the drive. Click here to contribute.

Our crisis beneficiary, Team Rubicon, launched Operation: Seabird to offer help in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. Their volunteers are focusing on search and rescue efforts and providing medical triage for a field hospital in Tacloban. On the Team Rubicon website, photojournalist Kirk Jackson talks about the team’s experineces on the ground in Tacloban.

It was Haiti in 2010 that we last saw this level of destruction — a level of destruction that doesn’t just leave entire cities displaced, but also strips away its infrastructure, commerce, industry, schools, agriculture, and every home within miles. Today we were airlifted via Phillipines Air Force helicopters into Tanauan, and the bird’s eye view on the trip in had the potential to numb, to make some throw their hands up in the air and say, “It’s too much.”

Click here to read the full post. To support the desperately needed relief efforts of CDRC and Team Rubicon, click here.  

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