Aid to the Church in Need: Philippines: ACN offers help as emergency crisis deepens

Philippines: ACN offers help as emergency crisis deepens

Posted by Press Release on 6/10/2009, 7:50 am
Board Administrator

ACN News: Tuesday, 6th October 2009 – PHILIPPINES

ACN offers help as emergency crisis deepens

Sr Mary Brasil: “We are in distress. We can only cry at the pain our people are experiencing here”

By John Newton and John Pontifex

CATHOLIC charity Aid to the Church in Need is to provide emergency aid to the Philippines as the region grapples with a natural disaster of epic proportions.
Responding to a desperate appeal for help, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians is despatching funds to provide food, clean water, blankets, clothes and hospital beds amid reports of millions of people in urgent need.
The aid package of over $22,000 is being sent to the Dominican Sisters of Regina Rosarii for distribution in the Philippines’ dioceses of Cubao and Antipolo.

(The Dominican Sisters organise food and other support for all those affected by the typhoon)

At least 250 people have been reported dead since Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) hit the Philippines on Saturday (26th September) and more than two million are thought to be affected by the disaster.
In a message to Aid to the Church in Need, Sister Mary Brasil, superior general of the Dominican Sisters of Regina Rosarii, said: “We are in distress. We can only cry at the pain our people are experiencing here.”
Sr Mary went on: “Please come to our aid. This is an emergency.”
Supported by Bishop Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao, the work of the Sisters has concentrated on the people worst affected by the disaster.
Sr Mary said: “Since day one of the typhoon that flooded our streets and houses, we have served hot meals and soup to wet and hungry victims in Quezon city, particularly the street families who also lost their shanties.”
She went on: “We have had no sleep practically since the big flood last Saturday. We are helping first of all… the street families who are also displaced. We serve meals.”
As well as supporting flood victims in Quezon city – the country’s most populated city and former capital – the Sisters are helping those affected in the municipality of Tanay Rizal.
In her message to ACN, Sr Mary wrote: “God bless you all for your compassion, Fr. Werenfried [ACN’s founder] surely has a heart for people ‘where God weeps’. Thank you very much.”
She went on to describe how in one village, Tanay Proper, most houses were washed away by the flood, leaving 51 villagers injured. 20 people are still missing.
The Sister singled out for special mention villager Menardo David who lost his parents, wife, two sons and a grandchild when the typhoon struck.
Sr Mary told ACN: “It is bad enough to lose a home, property and things – how much more to lose a loved one or whole members of their family.”
Stunned by the scale of the devastation, the Sisters have prioritised those areas overlooked by the media and thus especially short of help.
She said; “We have gathered through the efforts of our members, food and clothing. It is not enough however.”

(A priest and Sisters pray for those killed by the typhoon, while the media looks on)

The Sisters will be organising a retreat to provide psychological and spiritual help to families whose loved ones drowned in the flood.
Aid to the Church in Need is also committed to providing long term help, including repairs to church buildings and other infrastructure devastated by the typhoon.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org