Dear family and friends,
Several people have asked, either in comments on the blog, or directly to us by email, how they can help with the victims of typhoon Sendong here in our area. We have been thinking and praying about the best response to that. We didn’t want to single out any particular family or even a few families, to receive additional, much needed help, since there are so many affected. The church is doing a great job, from Manila and from Salt Lake, sending funds and getting them distributed here locally for the basic emergency needs, so we were kind of leaning toward A) just telling people that they should simply donate to the LDS church’s humanitarian aide fund in SLC, or B) suggesting donations go to the fast offering fund in this branch for food and supplies to be distributed directly by the members here. But the former seemed like it would feel too disconnected from this place and these people—though donations made that way ARE getting here—and the latter seemed it would disrupt the balance of what goes on within the local branch of the Church and the other congregations nearby.
Then today, we stumbled upon the perfect solution-a huge need won't be solved easily by these people themselves. We (Elder Cropper and I, the new missionaries assigned Amlan, and the Branch President) were walking through one of the worst hit neighborhoods with a lady who lives there. She was directing us to families she knows of who still need assistance—people who are on branch lists, but who few people know where they live. The “neighborhood” is a low lying plain sprinkled with trees and brush next to the river that was covered with mud and that has still not dried out almost 2 weeks later. The people still walk through sticky, ankle-deep mud to get to their houses. Their houses are sparsely scattered throughout this flood plain.
We were slogging about (Elder Cropper bought me some new boots!!) and I asked the sister when school starts up again, ‘cause I knew she was a teacher. She shrugged and said that the school is still filled with mud, that she just hired 6 guys to clean her class room, that each teacher is responsible for cleaning out their own classrooms, that there is an emergency fund of 2000 pisos ($46.00 to us, but to give perspective, the teacher we spoke to paid 6 men for 2 days to clean, for a total of 900 pisos) that is available from the school district, which is what she is using to pay the 6 workers, but the teachers then have 2 years to pay it off. They have to pay back the school district! These teachers are also mucking out their own houses and have lost everything themselves, but are now going in to debt to pay to get their classrooms back to functionable.
It did not take a genius to come to the conclusion that this would be a perfect project for some of our friends and family in America to tackle. With your help, a fund could be established that would pay for clean up, and restoration, plus help supply some materials that were damaged and destroyed. It could be a community project with branch members and missionaries from the zone doing some of the work, funds from home supplying materials, and the whole area benefiting.
We got back to the truck after the neighborhood tour, and drove back to where the school is. Elder Cropper took some pictures of the condition of the school. I think you will agree that this is a worthy project.
Looking into the classrooms, we saw what the teachers are faced with as they get back to school. Every classroom was completely submerged in water and once the waters receded, a layer of 6” – 12” of mud is left. Every book, map, globe, etc. is strewn about in the mud and destroyed. We will be talking to some of the school staff tomorrow to get an idea of their plan for clean-up and time frame. School starts again on January 3 after Christmas break. At this point there is nothing to come back to except mud and destruction.
The man in the picture below is the husband of one of the teachers. He has accomplished a lot toward cleaning up the classroom—those are parts of books hanging from the clothesline.
Another classroom is not so far along, with mud still everywhere.
This elementary school is in the Barangay (village) of Bio-os ( sounds like Bee-oh-ohs-rhymes with gross). There are a few hundred children who attend the school. Education is a big thing here. Everyone sends their children to school regardless of income. It always amazes us to see these little children coming out of their nipa huts in their uniforms on their way to school.
To give you a sense of the area the school area covers, it is about a third the size of Ashland. Two miles by two miles. It was all under water and everyone is digging out.
Entrance to the school. The mud is ankle deep here.
The Soccer field
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School yard
They have been working on this room. Most of the mud has been cleaned out. One of the few rooms with anything done.
This is pretty typical of what the grounds look like.
This is a look into one of the typical classroom. I don't think a single book in the school survived.
This is a husband of one of the school teachers. He has worked hard to get his wife's classroom put back in some order. The papers on the lines are from books he has washed and he's hanging the parts out to dry. He worked so his wife wouldn't get charged the 2000 pisos. He was pretty excited about the thought that someone might be helping.
So, if you feel inclined, please consider as part of your end of the year donations sending a little something, or a bigger something to help these kids get back into their school.
We will send more info as we meet with people tomorrow to find out what the specific needs are, but in the meantime,
please send us an email to the following address with a pledge amount so we have an idea of how much we can offer. Copy and paste this email address:
ramptons@gmail.comRebecca Rampton will set up a bank account for the money to go into and then she will make it available here by wire.
Time is of the essence since school is supposed to start on Jan 3.
Please know this will likely NOT be tax deductible, since we don't have a non-profit status. AND this is in no way affiliated with the church. We would never ask for donations while on a mission except that this is a huge, natural disaster--way out of normal realms--and people were asking how to help, so we think this a great solution.
Thanks and love to all. Please send a link to this post to family or friends who might be interested in helping.
School is planned to start on Tuesday. 500 students 17 classrooms and 17 teachers.
