How you can help Typhoon Maring victims

The wet season in the Philippines is at this time of the year till around October or early November, and the past couple of days have been tough for hundreds of thousands of people in several parts of the country. Over a million have been affected by Typhoon Maring, says this news report. The evacuation centers in Marikina alone, one of the hardest hit areas, are taking care of over 25,000 people.

I've put together information on how you can help by way of relief goods or cash donations. This is a quickly put-together post so only a few initiatives are included -- those I've come across on Facebook or were mentioned by friends.

No amount of help is too small or too big! Any form of assistance counts!

See photos of the flooding here


Here is also something very important that you will want to consider when giving out relief supplies or when thinking of what items to donate --

INFANT FORMULA CAUSES MORE HARM THAN GOOD IN EMERGENCIES
Safely feeding an infant with formula requires 1) access to a constant supply of formula  2) access to clean water  3) access to heating implements (proper preparation of formula requires heating of water to a certain temperature)  4) ability to clean feeding implements.

As we know, evacuation centers are often crowded and have very limited water supply.  Any available water is likely to be contaminated.  Using this water to mix formula leads to diarrhea which in situations like this, often leads to death.

When infant formula is included in every relief pack given out, it is made available even to mothers who are successfully breastfeeding.  Why is this a problem? Mothers who are breastfeeding and displaced due to an emergency are often made to believe that the ‘stress’ from the emergency affects their ability to breastfeed; that their breast milk becomes insufficient and inadequate.  They then end up giving formula to their healthy breastfed child.  The truth is that breastfeeding is especially protective in disaster situations.  A mother’s breast milk will contain the same amount of calories, with the right proportion of protein and fat, regardless of the mother’s nutritional status.  With breastfeeding there is no need to provide water, so exposure to deadly bacteria and contaminants is avoided.

Read Protecting babies during emergencies: How the public can help