Overflowing support for the Philippines (update)

A fundraiser for the victims of super Typhon Haiyan was ram packed Monday afternoon.

The damage in the Philippines has been horrific. There are 1,774 confirmed deaths as of late Tuesday afternoon, but more than 2,000 are feared dead.

The disaster goes far beyond that as 23,000 homes were also destroyed and the typhoon affected at least two million people.

The fundraiser event at St Theresa’s Church Hall was originally planned weeks ago to help the victims of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that was centered in Bohol.

The local Filipino group reacted quickly this weekend to expand the purpose of the $25-a-plate dinner to cover this latest tragedy.

And Monday they had to be just as quick as they were inundated with a deluge of support.

George Alayon, auditor for the Association of Filipinos in Bermuda, said they had originally planned for 100 people to show up, but had to put out several extra tables to handle all the overflow.

Mr Alayon told the Bermuda Sun said that the turnout for the fundraiser was “Unbelievable. We were not expecting this many people. The press release from Senator (Michael) Fahy helped get more people here than we initially planned. We’re very happy but now we’ve had to juggle things up to accommodate everyone”.

He said they were originally planning for less than 100 people because many people are off island over the three-day holiday.

In total, just over $10,000 was raised on Monday, but more is expected to come in (if you want to help out the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, see page 7 for ways you can help).

Mr Alayon said his family was affected by the earthquake but not by the typhoon.

Home Affairs Minister Michal Fahy attended the lunch. He told the Bermuda Sun: “This is a tremendous sense of community and that’s what the Filipino community in Bermuda has always done. They have always been able to get people together to support their family back home. When you have a disaster, it brings out the best in everyone. We (OBA) thought it good to show support for the Filipino community by having representation at this event.

“We understand and empathize with what they’re going through with their families at home. We pledge to leave no one behind and that includes the Filipino community.”

A spokesperson for Premier Craig Cannonier said: “He wanted to let the Association of Filipinos in Bermuda know he supports them. One of his tenets is we are our brother’s keeper. Bermudians are renowned for jumping in in the midst of a tragedy and helping because of the many hurricane aftermath scenarios we’ve gone through. This is an opportunity for Bermudians to show we are one community.” n