Funds raised through the intensified donation campaign by the Filipino community for the flood victims in the Philippines has reached about QR40,000. The community has sent hundreds of boxes of relief goods. Filipino community leaders said the fund campaign would continue especially that another tropical storm “Ramil”, the third successive typhoon to hit the Philippines, is expected to batter again northern Luzon today even as thousands of residents there are still reeling from the typhoon “Pepeng” disaster. “Definitely our donation drive would still continue and in fact intensify as we urged our fellow countrymen to lend a helping hand some more,” said Frank Jamadre who is tasked by the Filipino Community Organisations Alliance (Filcoa) to spearhead the fund drive. Jamadre said an initial QR20,000 was already sent to the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Philippines through the auspices of the Philippine Embassy in Qatar while some QR12,000 were allocated for the shipping cost of sea and air freights of the hundreds of relief boxes already sent to the country. He said they are still keeping intact the remaining fund as they are expecting more support from individuals and groups in the community which will be good enough to send more aid to more residents who will be displaced by the new tropical storm “Ramil.” Since early this month, members of several community organisations including APOAA Qatar, IBzQ and students of computer literacy programme of the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) have volunteered packing hundreds of relief goods boxes at the POLO premises. The volunteers have already packed some 5,000 kilos of relief boxes including 800 kilos of canned goods and ready-to-eat foods and some 1,000 kilos of brand new clothes which were already sent by air freight to the Philippines. Cristina Marinas, an official of Filcoa, said they saved a lot from shipping expenses since some cargo forwarding firms like Makati Express, Coriner and ELS Cargo were generous enough to offer free of charge many boxes that were sent. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=October2009&file=Local_News2009101905342.xml

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