Hampshire Filipinos tell of fears for family and friends

But while the rampant devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan is thousands of miles away in the Philippines, the pain and frustration is being felt today right here in Hampshire.

Last night it was feared that the death toll may top 10,000 with more than 11 million people believed to have been affected by the storm and some 673,000 displaced.

The typhoon – said to be the strongest ever to make landfall – has made roads impassable and left airports out of action, severely hampering relief efforts.

Its impact is also being felt by the estimated several thousand Filipinos who live and work in Hampshire, many in the Winchester, Eastleigh and Southampton areas.

Many of the community members are heading to Catholic churches which have been acting as a focal point for those who have relatives in some of the hardest-hit areas.

Fundraising and collections are now being organised.

Employers, including hospitals in Southampton and Winchester, as well as Carnival UK, have also been offering support to distraught employees.

Filipinos in Hampshire have spoken of their desperate but futile attempts to contact loved ones back home.

Edgar Sitjar, from Winchester, who works in the city’s Royal Hampshire County Hospital, said that he last spoke to his 78-yearold mother Aling-Bell and other relatives on Friday morning just as the typhoon began bearing down on her home in the Aklan province.

But since then it has been impossible to speak to them.

He said: “I am very worried because I have not had any news about what is happening to them.

“Communications are very difficult. I feel very sad because I think they may not have any food to eat, not only my mum but other relatives also.”

John and Sheila Fitzgerald and their daughter Diane, from Everton in the New Forest, have talked about being left in limbo after failing to contact their family in Tanauan.

Sheila, originally from the stricken area, said: “It’s very sad seeing your home town destroyed.”

Diane said: “When we first heard about the typhoon my mum tried to ring our family in Tanauan but didn’t get anything.

“We could not call them or Facebook them. I saw on Facebook my cousin was on his mobile and I tried to contact him on that but it wouldn’t send.”

John said: “The closest we have been able to contact people is in Manila and north of Manila. The communications near the impact are non-existent.

“What we have found is local Filipino television yesterday sent a helicopter in and they found devastation and the poor people there were desperate for food. One thousand people are thought to have died there and the people really need help.”

Those who have been able to contact relatives have been relayed horrific stories of death and destruction.

When Father Claro Conde, the parish priest at St Patrick’s Church in Woolston, Southampton, managed to phone his sister Susan, 57, he was stunned at what she told him.

Along with survivors she had volunteered to collect 22 bodies strewn around their home village
in typhoon-ravaged Tacloban.

Father Conde said: “My sister and the volunteers picked up people I know well. I grew up with them. She said it was terrible. There were a lot of bodies in the street and mostly they put them in the church.”

But as well as helping gather up bodies she also saved her neighbours’ lives. As the storm hit she helped usher people to the top of their family’s two-storey concrete home while dangling white sheets to rescue people floating by in the surging waters.

Now concerns are growing for the conditions of those living amid total devastation. Roberto Franco, 39, a specialist nurse from Sholing in Southampton, has relatives in Tacloban, where thousands have perished.

He said: “Luckily for her and her son she escaped and they managed to get out in time but the main problem they are facing is extreme shortages of food and the basics to survive.

“Hopefully in a few days’ time it will be better for them.”

How you can help

COMMUNITY groups and individuals are today pulling together to help alleviate the desperate situation in the typhoon-hit areas.

This includes St Patrick’s Church in Woolston, Southampton, which has set up its Typhoon Haiyan Appeal.

Donations can be sent to 45 Portsmouth Road, Southampton, SO19 9BD or by calling 07803 191
502.

Over in St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Jewry Street, Winchester, a collection is under way.

People can take along clothes and blankets, although they must be clean because there is no water in the storm-hit zones.

Tinned food and other essentials are also welcomed.

The church will also be holding a fundraising jumble sale on Sunday from 8am to 12.30pm.

Winchester Rotary has committed a minimum of five Shelterboxes to the international relief initiative following the typhoon in the Philippines and will be mounting a collection at Sainsbury’s Badger Farm supermarket all day next Tuesday, November 19.

Other Rotary clubs in the area are also making similar donations.

Donations to the Winchester  Rotary initiative are also possible via JustGiving at justgiving.com/Alan-Darlington or by texting the code WRSB99 plus your amount – £1, £2, £3, £5 or £10 – to 70070.

Individuals are also doing their bit, including 30-year-old Robert Slinn, from Winchester.

On hearing the dreadful news he has sprung into action to raise money for Shelterbox, an international charity providing vital relief packages to people hit by natural disasters.

His decision to act came after he spent a year working in a badly-hit area of the stricken South East Asian country.

He said: “I have got loads of Filipino friends and worked with them so I feel a real strong connection to what I am seeing on television.”

You can donate to his appeal by logging on to justgiving.com/robert-slinn2.

A charity quiz at St Martin-in-the-Wood Church, Chandler’s Ford, raised nearly £500 for Christian Aid on Saturday night. The generous contestants then responded to an impromptu appeal for the Philippines typhoon survivors by donation an additional £704.