In the wake of typhoon Haiyan, which devastated parts of the central Philippines like Leyte, Samara, and Tablacan, I wrote a blog yesterday outlining how you could help.  I offered to match any donations, dollar-for dollar, that came in from you within a 24-hour period, and your response has been incredibly generous.  

I received donations from old friends, new friends, and even people I haven't met, all over the world, and together we raised $1,760 in 24 hours.  I will be matching that donation, so all in all we'll be giving $3,520  to Direct Relief.org, who is doing some amazing work here in the Philippines!

There are so many of you to acknowledge for your support, good wishes, and donations, but most of all I want to thank those who donated from the bottom of my heart for caring about the good people here in the Philippines.

With over 700,000 people displaced and still without food, water, shelter, or medicine who desperately need your help, there is a lot of work yet to be done - so keep saying prayers and spreading the word.

Salamat Po (thank you),

Norm  :-) 

In the aftermath of typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda here locally) that devastated parts of the central Philippines last week, many people are asking "How can I help?"  

I'd love to walk you through that, as I am currently living on Boracay Island in the Philippines and took footage of the typhoon that is being used in media around the world.  We got hit but not nearly as hard as areas like Tacloban, Leyte, and Samara, where the damage and devastation are so widespread, it's led to one of the biggest humanitarian crisis in history.

People are good and want to help, but please do not collect diapers, books, canned goods, children's toys, blankets, etc. to send over in care packages.  Your heart is in the right place, but that is not what's needed.  Children do not need toys if they don't have water, yet.  Pillows and blankets that are delivered 3 weeks from now won't help if someone does not have food or a shelter to sleep in.   

Furthermore, it would take more manpower to ship, open, organize, and distribute than the value it would provide.  Even amateur volunteers are impossible to place in the heart of the affected areas, as so far only Marines and Filipino troops can access the survivors.

What they need is money.  Getting charitable donations to the right organizations, who can give these people what they need, is the #1 best way to be of assistance to the typhoon survivors.  

I am no expert, but I do some philanthropy work and know some amazing full-time altruists, and from what I've seen, Direct Relief is a great place to donate your hard-earned money.  

Direct Relief is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that provides medical assistance to people around the world who have been affected by poverty, natural disasters, and civil unrest. 

They work internationally, have boots on the ground already in the Philippines, have no political or religious agenda, and a whopping 99% of donations go DIRECTLY to the affected victims.  Those admin costs are incredibly low compared to the Red Cross and others.

So please consider a donation to DirectRelief.org.  Months ago, I signed up for a humble donation every month that is automatically deducted from my bank account.  Even for the cost of a few Starbucks coffees a week you could help a typhoon survivors here in the Philippines.  

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping, and please share this to spread the word.


Norm   :-)

In the wake of typhoon Haiyan (called Yolanda here in the Philippines) and the humanitarian disaster in places like Leyte and Tacloban, I’ve received correspondence from people all over the world with questions.  First off, they all offer their sympathies and support, and I’m genuinely thankful for that.  But the questions sometimes steer to the practical, like this:

“I have a vacation booked to Boracay in the Philippines, and I’m supposed to arrive this week.  Considering what has happened there with the typhoon, should I still come?  Maybe I should cancel - I feel bad about enjoying my vacation with so many people dead or suffering.”

It’s a great question, and one I would ask, too, considering booking airfare, hotels, etc. can cost thousands of dollars, which would never be refunded if they cancelled. 
   
Here is how I answer them:

I appreciate the sentiment, but the reality is this: you NOT coming on your vacation isn’t going to help anyone here in the Philippines.  In fact, a tourism pullback can only damage local economies, especially as we’re going into the “high” season when so many families are counting on the tourism industry.  Hayden Fernando, President of the Boracay Tourism Association, says that up to 70% of the island’s residents make their living directly from tourism dollars.

I say, come celebrate life.  Pay respects by coming and meeting the beautiful people of the Philippines and share a warm smile or a laugh with them.  They’re welcoming you into their homes – onto their island, and in their country, so come enjoy your vacation.  Get a tan, lounge on the perfect white sands of Boracay (which are still perfect) and have a couple too many cocktails while you dance the night away to the island’s live reggae music.

And when you leave, make a donation to a relief organization, like DirectRelief.org, or others who are doing great work to help the victims of the typhoon.  Give as much as you can – that is up to you.  

In my humble opinion, THAT is the best way to proceed with your vacation, but still honor the victims of the typhoon, all the while making some new heartfelt friendships in the Philippines.

Update Nov 18 at 9:00 pm - 

Three important bulletins:

1)  If you have a vacation planned to Boracay and want to know about the condition of the island, read this.  (But it's all good news)

2) BE CAREFUL of scams - you may get people "trolling" social media, who see you are missing loved ones and then email you that they have found them, but they need special medical assistance and to be airlifted out.  They'll request money to make that happen, but scam you.  If you receive such and email and are dubious, ask for distinguishing marks, specific details, questions only they would know, and even a photo with them.  Get that person's contact information and contact the local authorities.  


3) The island is still without internet, and it may be a while, so the best thing to do is buy a Filipino SMART or GLOBE SIM card and have them put it in your smart phone.  That way you can access internet on your phone, or even set up a hotspot for your laptop or iPad. 

GREAT news - the electricity came on for most of Boracay late Monday night!  There are still some areas down, but most of the island has power.  Still no internet or phone lines, but I expect them to be online soon,  so all of your loved ones will be able to email, call, and communicate with you soon!

Until then rest assured, there were no reported deaths or even injuries from the typhoon on Boracay Island, so just be patient and keep the faith.  I'm here to help no matter what you need!

***
Since my video footage of super typhoon Yolanda and the aftermath here on Boracay Island in the Philippines went out, I’ve been receiving Tweets and Facebook messages from people all over the world.  A lot of people have family or friends here on the island but haven’t heard from them, and are concerned.  We were very lucky to miss the brunt of the typhoon and damage was minimal on Boracay, with no deaths or even injuries reported, but still,  internet and phone lines are down, so communication is sporadic, at best.

*If you haven't heard from your friends or family, please assume all is well and they are enjoying their time on the island, just unable to communicate because of the power outages.  I understand people get scared and concerned, but there were NO reported injuries or deaths.*  

Here is a list of names of people who were supposedly on Boracay Island during the typhoon, but their family hasn’t heard from them.  Please share this list and help me track these people down and let them know to contact their families to let them know they’re ok.

*I am getting hundreds of tweets, messages, and requests every day, so please don't just give me a name.  There are 15,000 people on the island and I won't just bump into them.  Please include:
Full name
Recent photo
Travel dates on Boracay
Physical description
Hotel
Last contact
Any other helpful information

I am on Boracay so anyone can contact me at hi@NormSchriever, @NormSchriever on Twitter, or Norm Schriever on Facebook.  If they need help, food, water, a place to stay, or want to use my local cell phone for internet I am happy to be of service.   There are so many people horribly affected on islands around us, so let’s all come together as a world community and do what we can for them.

PLEASE ALSO SHARE THIS POST VIA SOCIAL MEDIA, AND POST THE LINK TO AS MANY SITES, BLOGS, FACEBOOK AND TWITTER ACCTS, ETC. THAT HAVE TO DO WITH BORACAY, THE PHILIPPINES AS POSSIBLE.

Salamat Po (Thanks so much.)

Norm :-)

Updates as of 11/14, 3:00 pm local time:

Internet is out as well, which makes communications so sporadic.

There are no medical or safety emergencies to speak of.  

There are no reported injuries or fatalities and damage was minimal on Boracay.  

Caticlan airport is now up and running, as well as Kalibo.

*There is no need to cancel your vacation to the island, if you have one planned.  Read this.

These tourists/visitors should contact their families:

Charles Agustus Marcum (Chuck), American, Black hair, brown eyes, 5'7", slim.  56 y.o. but looks 35-45.  Can pass for Filipino. 

Danyele Maduka Borsellino, British with an Italian passport.  FOUND - AND SHE IS FINE!

Brian Tefft

Susan Newbury, English, 50 years old

Jeremy Devereux Hickman

Tom Hobbs and Abi Swayer 

Randall Parker - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Monique Brault

Glen Morrissey - FOUND AND HE'S FINE!

Divena Buzzini, a local woman at 0443 Tambifaan 408-353-4391

Aurélien Fournier, 26, French, kiteboard instructor

Jane and Michel from 7Stones in Boracay - FOUND AND THEY'RE FINE!

Dely Gregorio - FOUND AND SHE IS FINE!

Steven Weiley

Ainara Yague Garcia, 26 year-old woman, caucasion, skinny, long straight brunette hair. 

Jon Bilbao Rodriguez, 27 year-old man, caucasion and skinny, brown hair. - FOUND AND THEY ARE FINE!

Gabriel Apostol and his friend,

Esther Ang – FOUND HER AND SHE IS FINE!

Brian Rothell – FOUND HIM AND HE IS FINE!

Patrik Olsson – FOUND HIM AND HE IS FINE!

He is 26 and he is with his 23 year old little brother Loïc Tarridec.

James Weaver

Scott Crist, Seattle, Wa - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Charmaine Delgado and Henry. Charmaine works at Mandala Spa

Andrew Doran and daughter Mia.  He's a DJ

Emer Lowe (Irish) and her boyfriend Gus Lambert - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Any Chinese University of Hong Kong foreign exchange students should contact the student advisor Daniel Chan at 852 3943 4002, [email protected]
My 20 year old daughter Bianca Chelu-Penalagan should let Daniel know where she (and other students) is/are staying, contact information ASAP.

Stuart Gammie -FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Jeff Benjoya

Alex, Isabel and Tino

Glen Morrissey

Mark Rice and Tracy Tsui

Dely Gregorio and family.  FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Jerry Martin, 71, caucasian

Clayton Watene, a big maori fella.  With his wife and 2 kids.  FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Al Robbinson, ex-firefighter, 66 years old, Vancouver

Scott Crist - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Rodila (Dely) Gregorio, Union Village

Jane and Michel, managers of 7Stones resort on Bulabog Beach.

Minsun Ji, Korean, works in a tourist office

Maureal Julieta from Bontoc. Southern Leyte, Philippines.. age 28, just came back from Kuwait City.

Ilsa Hildebrand from Victoria bc Canada

Kate Martyn and Giles Williams, Australian

Ty Reckling, US - FOUND AND HE'S FINE!

Valerie sanchez & Rey and Rosa Dominguez

David Halliday, English Dive Instructor at Shangrila.  FOUND - AND HE'S FINE!

Phil Skeels and Michelle Perry, Canadians - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Gregg R. Tadeo Jr., currently working as a Duty Manager in Crown Regency

Flo, owner of a beachfront resort called Eclipse

Vener Yunarov, Staying at Turtle island hotel

Caner Ercosman - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Dan Efergan and his wife and son Huxley. - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Eric Goropse

Gary Saidler - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Franz Gonzales and girlfriend Katherine, Singapore

Clayton Watene and his family - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Kate Martyn and Giles Williams, Australian

David Halliday, working out of the Shangri-La Resort - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Thomas Kunnath from Perth - FOUND AND HE'S FINE!

Lenart Nuon from Melbourne

Wayne Jeffries, Leah Jeffries, and son AJ, St Vincents Cottages - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE OK!

YING ZHAO, age: 24, 5feet3 tall, Chinese.Last location:Kalibo.

Meagen Blake and Chris - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Jeanne Borderie (mother, 80) and Didier Borderie (son, balding, 45 years, athletic)

John Hilton, Bamboo House

Moa Narving  - FOUND HER AND SHE'S FINE!  

Senastian Magnusson - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Claire and Luke from New Zealand

Phil (6’3” 250 lbs) and girlfriend from Canada

Jess Aitken

Ted and Ginny, Isla Gecko

Jason Philiipe, Chad Wilson, Cameron Langeberg, Australians staying on east of isle. - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Aurelie Forget-Renaud - FOUND HER AND SHE'S FINE!

Matt Rose

Marie-Lise

Georgina Nefiodovas and Jeremy Kay - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Roy Laing - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Jai Manzano - FOUND HER AND SHE'S FINE!

Jack Lingwood and Theresa - FOUND THEM AND THEY'RE FINE!

Sarah Jane Patterson - FOUND HER AND SHE'S FINE!

Fred Crocker, Paradise Bay Resort - FOUND HIM AND HE'S FINE!

Waleria Kolczina

Jessie Ewin - FOUND HER AND SHE'S FINE!

Chise Ovidiu from Romania

Bee Wiliamson (Lil-Miss Bee), from New Zeland. - FOUND HER AND SHE'S FINE!

Bryan Buffington, Tulubahn beach 

Maureal Julieta, Bontoc, Southern Leyte

It's 3:39 am and I'm wide awake.  I step outside and can feel an eerie humidity, twice as thick as the normal island air.  A strong breeze stirs, swaying a tree top.  Outside on the street there are already motorbikes driving by, and someone yells.  

It's 3:47 am and I'm wide awake because tomorrow at noon will start the most profound day of my life.  A super typhoon is set to hit the small island I'm living on in the Philippines - Boracay in the Visayas - head on.  My emails and Facebook messages are buzzing with well wishes, prayers, and thoughts of concern.  I appreciate all of them.  I am also hearing reports that super typhoon Yolanda is picking up intensity, and that winds could be up to 225 kph, or 140 miles per hour, with sea swells up to 25 feet high. 

It's 3:50 am and I step outside my apartment again and look down over my balcony to try and count how high 25 feet is.  I think I am one floor or so above that line, but tomorrow morning at first light I better go out and hit the ATM machine again, while it's still working, and go to the market near the beach again, while it's still there, and buy more supplies:  Spam, Snickers bars, bread, canned hot dogs, another flashlight, canisters of water.  I'll look around for a nice resort inland, in the hills, because the higher up the better when the storm hits.  I would rather not be here at all, and I did try to evacuate yesterday.  All the flights north to Manila from the mainland town of Caticlan across the sea channel were booked, but I found one from the town of Kalibo further south.  But when I went to the ferry at 7 am, there were hundreds of people waiting against the closed chain link gate - the Coast Guard had issued a strict order not to let any boats sail, so we were stuck on the island.

I try to guess what this place will look like about  8 hours from now.  I see a lot of palm tree branches ripped into a frenzy, cheap tin roofs flying around like tempest razor blades.  The line of shops and restaurants lining the beach, now boarded up with bamboo and plastic wind screens secured in front of them, will face 140 mph winds and a rising sea swell of 25 feet head on, twice their height.  I think of all the people...  

It's now 4:02 am and I walk back inside to the cold air conditioning of my little apartment.  I might as well enjoy it while I can, because, even best case scenario, we'll be without electricity for a while.  I sit down and take out my computer and think about work - I should write a few more blogs, schedule them to go out for next week, just in case.  I don't do that, realizing that this time is precious and not to be spent on work.  I write an email to my mom and assure her that my apartment is high up and that I have plenty of supplies and that I have local friends looking out for me and that I'll be just fine, of course.  I end the email with "I love you, Norm."  I stop and look at those words.  I should say more - there's so much - but what, without worrying her?  I add a smiley face.  

It's 4:07 am and I open my computer, which will soon be just a slab of mechanical parts when the power and internet goes out, and write this, to you.  More messages come in from people who are praying for us.  

I do not worry about myself.  If it's my time, it's my time, and I feel like I've  lived 2 lives, no - 10 lives - in these 41 years on earth.  I think about the others on the island of Boracay, and in the Philippines, and in the world, who suffer.  Those without money or others to care for them or the capacity to get to higher ground.  I think about the little school kids in uniforms I see running cheerily down the path, and the old woman braiding hair in the beach's palm shade, and the barefooted fishermen, bent from a life of work but still offering a smile.  I hope that someone is praying for them, that someone will be a witness to their existence, because, believe me, their souls are good.  

It's 4:13 am and I better wrap this up.  Thank you.  Of all the places I've been in the world and all of the experiences I've had, the simple kindness of good people is the thing I treasure most.  I need nothing else.  Perhaps I'll get a chance to have more days, to bring more light into this world, to serve, but it's cool, either way - I'm at peace.  

I'll keep posting and emailing tomorrow as long as I can before the juice goes out, and then the second we are back up and running on this island, however long that might be.  I hope this email reads like sappy hyperbole by then, and that things weren't as bad as they're saying.  But just in case, there's one thing I want to say:

I love you all.  

Is that enough to express all that I'm feeling?  No, but I'm not in the mood for grand poetic gestures and soliloquies about life right now - they seem useless, more things set to sever and fly about when the storm hits.  It's 4:24 am and I'm exhausted and I can't sleep but I can't stay awake, either.   Things are calm now, so I'll leave it at that, after adding one more thing:

I love you all.  :-)  

-Norm