By Camelia Rodriguez
PINOY Associate Editor
A week after typhoon “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana) devastated the Northern Luzon islands of the Philippines on Sept. 26, another strong typhoon made its way through the islands. This one was given the name “Pepeng” (international codename: Parma).
Despite the fact that they are millions of miles away from their native land, Filipino Americans in Chicago (according to census estimates approximately 28,000 Filipinos lived in the city of Chicago in 2000) have stepped up in various ways to lend a helping hand to their countrymen and women who have suffered the affects of the two typhoons.
Within the past couple of weeks Filipino American students have taken to their Twitters and have been using Facebook to spread the word about different ways to help those in need. ManilaStar Events (a non-profit organization founded by University of Illinois at Chicago student Jeffrey DeGuia and comprised of high school and college students from the Chicagoland area) posted a Facebook event on Oct. 1 for their “Typhoon Ondoy Dance Fundraiser” at Dolce restaurant in Chicago and within a couple of days over one hundred people confirmed they would be attending.
“I decided to organize this fundraiser because I saw that fund raising events were mostly done by the older generation and did not see high school and college youth involvement,” said Lakhi Siap of ManilaStar Events. “I decided to have one that catered towards the youth. I want to show the community in Chicago that we are also organized and can make a difference.”
Through their event, ManilaStar was able to raise more than $800 in just three hours. All the proceeds will go towards the shipment of relief goods to the Philippines.
College organizations such as DePaul’s Asian Cultural Exchange (ACE) have also answered the call for help. ACE will be hosting a bake sale with all the proceeds going towards helping the Filipino flood victims. They will also be holding a clothing drive in the Student Center on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus.
Loyola University’s Filipino organization, Kapwa, has teamed up with the Vietnamese organization, VASA, to hold a clothing drive.
“Already heavily involved in community service, I felt it was especially important to help the people of my native country after the horrific events took place,” said Andrew Balitaan, Internal Public Relations Officer of Kapwa. “After seeing numerous news articles as well as amateur, unedited video online, I was shown how hard the Philippines was really hit and quickly joined Kapwa in their efforts to provide relief.”
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Philippine Student Association (PSA) has been collaborating with several Asian American student organizations, Filipino graduate students, and Filipinos in the Champaign-Urbana community to gather supplies, food, clothes, and money to support the victims of the Ondoy/Pepeng disaster.
“After hearing the damage of Ondoy, we started the drive on September 30. We’ve emailed our members, the Filipino community, and other students from different student organization to collaborate in these efforts,” said Justin Winfield, PSA president. “Knowing that a possible typhoon (Pepeng) was planning to hit the Philippine islands within that week, we wanted to act soon.”
Within one week, many students and community members brought in clothes, food, medical supplies, hygiene products, blankets, and more. On Oct. 12 PSA sent out their first set of boxes to the Philippine Red Cross and ABS-CBN Foundation (a major Philippine television network). PSA plans to continue gathering relief goods throughout the rest of the semester and into the new year. They would like to send as many supplies as they possibly can.
“We hope that the typhoon victims get the care and the supplies they need and we’ll do our best to provide those resources,” said Winfield.•
