Rotary Club mobilizes to assist typhoon victims in Manila




Rotary Club of Westlake has established a disaster relief fund to help residents of Manila in the Philippines after typhoon Ketsana hit the area on Sept. 26.

Manila experienced its worst flooding in more than 40 years, with more than 80 percent of the region covered in water and nearly 1.5 million people displaced.

“The victims are in desperate need of drinking water, clothes and nutritional and medical supplies,” said Edwin Velarde, relief chair for the Rotary Club of Westlake. “These people need help right now.”

Residents waited on rooftops for rescue helicopters to transport them to safety; others used ropes to wade through waistdeep muddy waters, Velarde said.

The region was declared a “state of calamity” by the government, which said it could not cope with the massive flooding.

Before the typhoon hit, Velarde had been working on several community service projects in the Philippines as part of a joint effort between his Rotary club and the Rotary Club of Makati South in the Philippines.

Makati South is setting up soup kitchens in disaster relocation centers. The Westlake group is considering humanitarian projects for the region.

Donations to the relief fund may be sent to Rotary Club of Westlake Village, Ketsana Disaster Relief Fund-Philippines, P.O. Box 3331, Westlake Village, CA 91359. Checks may be written to Westlake Village Rotary Unrestricted Charitable Foundation. For information, e-mail rotarytyphoonhelp@sbcglobal.net or call (818) 865-8006.

—Sophia Fischer



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