Many, Many Thank Yous!

As many of you know, we have the honor of working with many amazing people of Philippine descent on a regular basis.  We hope and pray for their families well-being after the devastating typhoon.  In hopes of helping, we have connected with an intricate network who are providing much needed resources where they are needed most.  We are amazed and overwhelmed with everyone’s generosity in their donations thus far, and wanted everyone to know that every item is truly being put to good use.  Below is a bit if recent dialog in regards to the needs, and the help that we together are contributing.

Dear Lynn,

You are an angel! Thank you so much for your support, and your unending generosity and kindness.

My best,
Dulce

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Dear Friends,

I just got back from a trip last weekend to Tacloban and Eastern Samar. I visited 5 schools in the areas worst hit by Yolanda. One of the items we brought for the teachers was…. Lipstick. The teachers were ecstatic. They told me that looking their best is important for the sake of the schoolchildren. When the teachers look good, they feel good, and their students absorb the positive vibes. When children see their authority figures looking presentable, they actually feel that one day things will get better (unlike if the teachers look pale or haggard). In this context, lipstick is not frivolous and irrelevant. In times of natural disasters, the simplest cosmetic item is actually a pivotal tool in the healing of psychological wounds.

We also brought rubber boots. Most of the teachers need to wear rubber boots when traveling the distance to get to the schools and classrooms. A lot of the classrooms are actually makeshift tents on soil which get wet / muddy when it rains.

My goal is to collect as many pairs of boots and lipsticks as possible, through a combination of actual donations in kind, and also donations in cash which I will use to purchase lipsticks and boots, hopefully at cost.

This morning I saw an update on the situation in Tacloban, which is where our donations are going.  It remains devastated with millions of people living in makeshift hovels or right in the street while they mourn their lost family members and have little to eat or drink.  Over 6000 died in Tacloban and over 2000 remain missing.  They interviewed a man in front of the rubble that once was his home and is now the mass grave of 9 of his family members.  He has no hope of a job and nothing left to his name.  He lives in the street and relies on the relief effort for food and water, though there is often not much available. It showed children being schooled sitting in the dirt, yet they were smiling.  The hospital was destroyed, so the injured are being treated in a colony of tents.  It is so easy to forget this and assume that the problems are resolving, but it will be many torturous years before life returns to any remote semblance of normalcy for them.

Let us continue to push for donations of lightweight adult and kids clothing and shoes, soaps, lotions, and foods, like rice and canned items such as soups and tuna, and vegetables and fruits, along with medical supplies, and school supplies and toys for the children, and, yes, lipsticks for the teachers.   Together, we really can make a difference!

Thanks,

The Hired Hands Homecare Team