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Mercy Relief’s Press Release, 15th Decem­ber 2006:

Singapore’s Dis­as­ter Response Team sets to work in the Philip­pines
Fri­day, 15 Decem­ber 2006

Legazpi City (Philippines)

Mercy Relief’s 1st Dis­as­ter Response Team arrived in Legazpi City in the Bicol Region on Thurs­day, 14 Decem­ber 2006.
Fol­low­ing an ini­tial assess­ment around Albay, the 4-man team set to work in the com­mu­nity of Oro Sige vil­lage where there is a large num­ber of chil­dren and aged need­ing med­ical assis­tance. Overnight, the team set up a makeshift clinic in s school and attended to more than 80 patients the next day.

Most cases treated were gas­troin­testi­nal and res­pi­ra­tory infec­tion, which are gen­er­ally due to poor san­i­ta­tion and con­t­a­m­i­nated water sup­ply. The team will con­tinue to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion to pre­vent any pan­demic out­break and will alert the local depart­ment of health should any­thing surfaces.“The major­ity of trauma cases have been dealt with prior to our arrival. It is now crit­i­cal for us to main­tain the health­care of the com­mu­nity to pre­vent out­breaks of dis­eases because of the poor liv­ing con­di­tions. These peo­ple sur­vived a nat­ural dis­as­ter and must not be allowed to suf­fer an epi­demic” cau­tioned Laura Tham, Mercy Relief’s Dis­as­ter Response Spe­cial­ist and a cer­ti­fied Nurs­ing Officer.

Most parts of the city are still with­out elec­tric­ity or reli­able com­mu­ni­ca­tion infra­struc­ture. Res­i­dents who lost their homes are seek­ing refuge in schools and com­mu­nity halls. Local and inter­na­tional NGOs are ral­ly­ing behind the local munic­i­pal­ity to co-ordinated relief efforts so that aid can be given effec­tively to the deserv­ing beneficiaries.

Gen­eral med­ical sup­plies and food are being pro­vided by the Philip­pines gov­ern­ment and sev­eral for­eign NGOs. How­ever, much needed are blan­kets and cloth­ing to keep the sur­vivors warm dur­ing this mon­soon period. Mercy Relief plans to be entrenched in the com­mu­nity of Oro Sige and will fan out to other nearby com­mu­ni­ties to help pro­vide, main­tain and improve their health needs.

Their 2nd Dis­as­ter Response Team, com­pris­ing 2 doc­tors, 2 nurses, a logis­ti­cian and lead by another Dis­as­ter Response Spe­cial­ist (a qual­i­fied para­medic) is expected to depart on Tues­day 19 Dec 06 to sup­port the first team’s mis­sion in Oro Sige village.

Mercy Relief is presently mak­ing an appeal for the pub­lic to sup­port their relief efforts. Dona­tions can be made via a secured online trans­ac­tion at www.mercyrelief.org/give.html or by send­ing a crossed cheque made payable to Mercy Relief. Donors are advised to write their Name, address and con­tactable num­ber so that the organ­i­sa­tion can follow-up with a cheque. Cash dona­tions can be made at Mercy Relief’s office, 11 Keng Cheow Street, #04–10, Sin­ga­pore 059608 dur­ing nor­mal busi­ness hours.

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:
Mr Fred­er­ick Foo
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Mercy Relief
E-Mail : fred@mercyrelief.org
DID : 6332 6326
Mobile : 9011 6218