Miss Earth helps needy in Philippines

JOHANNESBURG SOUTH: While Rescue South Africa prepares to deploy teams to disaster stricken Philippines with the assistance of the Government, Miss Earth SA has already left for the South East Asian country to lend a helping hand.

Miss Earth SA, Ashanti Mbanga has been assisting the country with disaster relief following the devastating typhoon which resulted in the death of thousands of people who were swept away by mountains of water and winds.

“Miss Earth will assist with disaster relief efforts put together by Carousel, the organisers of the event,” said Miss Earth SA Executive Director, Catherine Constantinides.

The Super Typhoon Haiyan reportedly has killed more than 2 000 people, displacing 660 000 more, thousands unaccounted for and impacting nearly 10 million throughout the islands. Those who have been affected are now struggling to survive without access to power, food, shelter or clean drinking water. The storm has been described by disaster management experts as one of the most intense and strongest of its kind to make landfall.

Rescue SA’s Ian Scher was quoted on EWN as saying, “We are taking a cross-trained paramedic type team with about five or six doctors. We will be able to offer a rescue trauma service very similar to the one we did when we were in Pakistan.”

If community members would like to make any donations to the relief package, they are encouraged to go to www.giftofthegivers.org for more information. For more information on other on-the-ground relief efforts please contact the Philippine Red Cross (https://www.redcross.org.ph/), or UNICEF (https://bit.ly/donateunicef) to donate and find out about other ways to help.

Teams of rescuers and caregivers gathered on November 15 with a mission to provide needed aid in the Philippines to try to remedy the devastating storm that has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history, and Philippines lead negotiator Yeb Sano addressed the opening session of COP19 in Warsaw this week, calling for urgent action to prevent a repeat of this devastating storm: “In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days, in all due respect Mr President, and I mean no disrespect for your kind hospitality, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate. This means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP until a meaningful outcome is in sight.”