Philippines: Malteser International provides emergency aid

Cologne/Manilla. Within the space of just a few days, a second severe typhoon made landfall in the Philippines over the weekend. Around 1.4 million people had to be evacuated. Many areas are currently still cut off from the outside world because the telephone network and internet are down. Together with the Philippine Association of the Order of Malta, Malteser International is preparing emergency aid, facilitated by its regional branch, MI Asia Pacific. Local partners will begin distributing non-perishable food, mattresses, blankets, and water containers to 1,000 families in the province of Cebu.

"At present, one disaster is following another in the Philippines. At the end of September, there were several strong earthquakes, followed by two severe typhoons. Heavy rains are still falling and thousands of homes are under water. It will take months before people in the affected regions can return to normal life. The Philippine Association of the Order of Malta has been working to help people in the country for decades, and will now provide rapid assistance," says Istvan Toth, head of Malteser International's emergency response department.

Typhoon Fung Wong was already the 21st cyclone to hit the Philippines this year. Climate change is causing more and more severe cyclones to sweep across Southeast Asia.

"The good news is that we can see that the disaster preparedness measures that many aid organizations have established in the Philippines over the past decades, in cooperation with local authorities, are working. People were warned and evacuated in good time, which meant that the death toll was kept relatively low. We can see the direct impact of our joint efforts here," says Toth.

Malteser International has been working closely with the Philippine Association of the Order of Malta in the Philippines since 2009. Its work focuses on disaster preparedness, emergency relief, and water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Attention editors:
Istvan Toth, Head of the Emergency Relief Department at Malteser International, is available for interviews and sound bites.
Contact: +49 (0)221 9822-7181, katharina.Kiecol@malteser-international.org
The people of the Philippines are in urgent need of donations.
Malteser Hilfsdienst e. V.
IBAN: DE10 3706 0120 1201 2000 12
S.W.I.F.T.: GENODED 1PA7
Reference: "Philippines"