The donation of January 2014 goes to:
Philippine Red Cross – (Typhoon Haiyan/Typhoon Yolanda)
The Philippine Red Cross is leading this response effort and their volunteers have been caring for people even before Typhoon Haiyan made landfall. Prior to the arrival of Typhoon Haiyan, the Philippine Red Cross worked closely with local disaster authorities to support preemptive evacuations, helping move more than 125,000 families to safer shelters. The Philippine Red Cross also disseminated early warning messages and safety tips in areas along the path of the typhoon.
Days later, Philippine Red Cross volunteer rescue and relief teams continue to provide assistance in the hardest hit communities, including assisting in search and rescue efforts. The Philippine Red Cross has extensive experience in search and rescue and large-scale relief and recovery programs. The Philippine Red Cross is the largest humanitarian organisation in the country, with 1,000 staff members and an estimated 500,000 active volunteers engaged in response to this emergency.
The Philippine Red Cross has begun distributions of relief supplies and volunteers are packing more supplies to send to all the affected areas. However, delivery of supplies in the worst affected city of Tacloban has been significantly constrained by damage to local infrastructure. Typhoon Haiyan hit the city of about 220,000 people the hardest with a tsunami-like storm surge pushing a wall of water nearly 10 feet high inland.
Specialised emergency response teams from Red Cross societies across the globe are moving to the Philippines to assist the Philippine Red Cross. These include teams with expertise in logistics, disaster assessment, shelter, health, water and sanitation.