Blogger does volunteer work on Leyte Island for recovery from Typhoon Haiyan

Ariel Neidermeier

The Philippine countryside still shows the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan .

ALL HANDS VOLUNTEERS had teams working in the Philippines when Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines, allowing the disaster relief agency to be among the first responders on the ground. Within a month of the storm, Project Leyte, opened and volunteers started to pour into the country looking to help those in need. 

Blogger Ariel Neidermeier

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, the volunteers' initial efforts were focused on the distribution of food and other non-food related items, debris removal and the deconstruction of damaged structures in the province of Ormoc. In February 2014, it expanded its project to the municipality of Kananga where All Hands partnered with the World Health Organization on debris clearance/management and repairs for the district’s sole hospital.

After months of emergency response work, All Hands pledged to stay and help the people recover from Haiyan and its efforts shifted to helping survivors rebuild their homes and lives. As a result of this decision, while some NGOs moved on, All Hands made a home in Tacloban, listening to the needs of the community and making every effort to meet them.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, All Hands has built and repaired more than 550 homes, shelters, hospitals and schools. It has built community spaces in six barangays (village) asking local Filipinos to help design what they want to see in their community. A woodshop program was created that focuses on teaching underprivileged teenagers basic carpentry, so that they can both learn a key skill and improve their confidence. 

DONATE: If you wish to donate to Helping Hands Volunteers, click here.

All Hands has expanded its efforts to the neighboring island of Samar, helping to build an evacuation center for a municipality that was left in a state of ruins after Typhoon Haiyan. This momentous effort was powered by 1,000 dedicated volunteers who dropped everything to help the Filipino people at the moment of their greatest need.

Recently, Filipina/American blogger Ariel Neidermeier of AsAm News joined All Hands' reconstruction efforts in Leyte and is writing about her experience. Following is her first installment as she begins her journey:

All Hands photo

Volunteers helped distribute food immediately after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines.

The Journey begins ...

By Ariel Neidermeier

Reprinted from AsAm News

IT TOOK two plane rides, an extended stop over in Cebu City, and a 3-hour ferry ride, but I made it to Leyte island in the Philippines.

From Cebu City, you can catch a ferry to Ormoc, a port city on the west side of Leyte. In Ormoc, I caught a jeepney – an open-air public bus – to Kananga, where All Hands Volunteers has set up it’s volunteer base camp and hub of operations. From there, they deploy groups of volunteers to various projects around the island. These range from rebuilding schools and homes to taking down the walls of broken hospitals to begin the reconstruction process.

My immediate thoughts on the state of Leyte island post-Haiyan are grim. On the drive from Ormoc to Kananga, which is located inland, on the west side of the island, we passed countless buildings missing roofs and walls; downed powered lines that have been left tangled in destroyed building and shrubbery. In the worst cases, the houses were simply a pile of rubble on the ground.

Driving through the countryside, I also noticed that all the trees look odd. The coconut trees that dot the horizon of this tropical place look spindly and bare; with whole fronds missing. The trees are also bowed in unnatural positions, with leaves bent and twisted. You can clearly see the ravages of the wind and rains from the storm.

Ariel Neidermeier

Volunteers dig to prepare for the foundation of a new home.

From the Kananga headquarters, All Hands is deploying groups of 5 to 15 volunteers to various rebuilding projects that need assistance throughout the island. I worked on a project digging foundations for a community of permanent homes called Rotary GK Village. The project is sponsored by Gawad Kalinga, a organization that sets up rebuilding projects in local communities in the Philippines.

RELATED: We Are The World for the Philippines

Community members are chosen by lottery and able to pay for their houses through labor.
So, if a family works a certain amount of hours, their labor translates into the price of the house.

For roughly eight hours, we dug 80 meter trenches and 50 meter holes to prepare for the laying of the foundation blocks for a tract of three houses. We worked alongside the Filipinos who are working on their own homes. In this hot, humid climate, this is back-breaking work. It’s necessary to take a break every 30 minutes and drink excessive amounts of water. I have a new found respect for manual laborers, to say the least.

Ariel Neidermeier

The children motivate the author to keep working in the tropical humidity.

The children of the village watched and giggled at us as we worked. They were incredibly interested in knowing our names, ages and origins. All of them were lively and friendly. By the end of the day, they began yelling “Ate Ariel!” (Ate translates roughly into ‘Big Sister.’ It’s a term of endearment and respect) whenever I walked past. Honestly, the only thing that gave me the motivation to continue working under the hot sun for hours were their happy smiles.

VIDEO: Watch the volunteers and their work

Today, I’m continuing on to Tacloban to join a new base of volunteers who will be working on projects outside and around the city. All Hands is slowly transitioning its main base to Tacloban and a group of seven of us are joining the small group of volunteers that are already there. While Kananga and Ormoc City felt the damages of the heavy rains and winds, Tacloban and its surrounding areas on the east coast of Leyte, were hit directly by the storm surge. I know the damages on that side of the island will be much worse than here.

Stay tuned for more information about Leyte post-Haiyan and what I find in Tacloban.

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Filipino American joins Copeland as lead dancers for American Ballet Theater

Stella Aberra's dancing has been described as "ethereal."

WHILE most of the mainstream media's attention has been on Misty Copeland, the first African American ballerina to be named principal dancer for the New York-based American Ballet Theater, equally noteworthy but virtually unnoticed is the promotion of the first Filipina/American to principal dancer for the same ballet troupe.

Filipina American Stella Abrera, raised in Southern California, joins fellow Californian Copeland last week to become the prima ballerinas for one of the premiere dance companies in America. That both dancers are of color is indicative of what is broadly happening in America, a slow but steady acknowledgement of the demographic shifts happening in our country.

Abrera is the first Filipino American to reach the rank of principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. Past international Filipino principal dancers include Maniya Barredo and Nicolas Pacaña with Atlanta Ballet, Anna Villadolid with Munich Ballet, and Ballet Philippines alumni Rey Dizon with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and Toni Lopez Gonzalez and Brando Miranda, who danced with Washington Ballet, and the Royal New Zealand Ballet, respectively.

Stella Abrera

“I feel extremely lucky and blessed that I’ve been granted this recognition,” said Abrera, who joined ABT in 1996 at the age of 17. “I always had a hope, but it was never my ultimate goal at this point in my career. My ultimate goal was to present the best art that I could every time . ... I’m completely over the moon.”

Her parents, Aurora and Jack Abrera, are ecstatic and someohat nonplussed about their youngest daughter's success.

“We are not ballet dancers. She’s the first edition. Nobody in the family dances!” her mother laughed. Since the family moved frequently to follow Jack Abrera's job as an engineer, dance was a constant for young Stella.

“She loved dancing, so she was always at home at any of the studios,” Aurora Abrera said.

Her father said they don't think of Stella as someone famous. “We really don’t realize how famous she is; we just think of her as just our daughter."

Last year, Abrera performed with Ballet Philippines at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) as the title role in “Giselle.” While in the country of her birth, she took time to visit a school devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in Guiuan, Samar. She decided to help and created the Steps Forward for the Philippines fundraiser to help complete the school that was being rebuilt. "I hope to do more of that work," she said.

"It was a deeply affecting experience," said Abrera. "Everywhere I looked in Guiuan, I saw evidence of catastrophic loss. And yet the students exhibited only determination and optimism. They greeted me warmly and excitedly led me on a tour of the nearly-completed structures of their new school. They were thrilled even to receive the pencils, paints, and notebooks I had brought with me from Manila. I left Guiuan wishing I could do more for these kids."

Abrera hopes to raise $20,000 to rebuild the school. As of this writing, she is just short of its goal. If you would like to help Abrera and Steps Forward, watch the video and link here.

We are the World for Philippines (COVER by Filipino Artists)

HAPPY NEW YEAR. Here's a positive, inspirational start to 2015.

There are several versions of this song. I love this one (above). I don't know their names but they are artists better known in the Philippines than the U.S. but because they are singing for their fellow countrymen, the spirit and sincere intensity comes through. There's a lot of talent on display here.

Unlike the other versions, including the one by big-name American artists, this version is not just raising funds, it's a "Thank You" to the rest of the world for the aid extended to victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

Despite the massive amount of aid, the central Philippines is still recovering from the devastation wrought by Haiyan. On top of it all, another storm, Typhoon Ruby hit the same area a few months ago. Fortunately, it wasn't as powerful and the local and national government was better prepared.

Enjoy.  

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What would you do with $25,000?

GIVEN CARTE BLANCHE to spend $25,000 to promote the motion picture "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,"  instead, Casey Neistat decided to spend it helping the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. Almost at the drop of the hat, he went to the Philippines and began handing out food and supplies. 

$25,000 sounds like a lot. But the need was so great that the money and supplies Neistat brought was just a drop in the bucket. But don't tell that to the hundreds of families that received the food and supplies. When it was all gone, he went back to the U.S. One person's act of kindness.

Its almost been a year since the largest storm ever recorded passed through the central Philippines and people are still recovering from the 2013 disaster that killed thousands and made millions homeless, and sent the region deeper into poverty. Mother Nature doesn't seem to give the Philippines a break.

Last May a BBC crew went back to see what progress had been made in rebuilding the area. Click here to see their report.

Unfortunately for Casey, the movie "Mitty" didn't do that well at the box office. It came and went from the local theaters so fast, that might say a lot about it's artistic value, but lack of promotion surely didn't help. 

 20th Century Fox is probably not too happy with what he did, but all I can say is, "thank you, Casey" on behalf of  the people of Tacloban City, which bore the brunt of the storm. You have your priorities straight. In your honor, I'm going to download "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" on Netflix. 

Ten months after the typhoon, its back to school for these children.