Operations in the Philippines, Haiti, and Suriname show that people everywhere are extremely glad to help in times of need, especially when it comes to essentials such as food, shelter, education, and providing people with the means to generate income.
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Photo: The NAC SEA Relief Fund
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Photo: Schweizer Rotes Kreuz (SRK)
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Photo: Schweizer Rotes Kreuz (SRK)
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Photo: Schweizer Rotes Kreuz (SRK)
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Photo: Missionswerk der Neuapostolischen Kirche Süddeutschland
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Photo: Missionswerk der Neuapostolischen Kirche Süddeutschland
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Photo: Missionswerk der Neuapostolischen Kirche Süddeutschland
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Photo: Stichting Corantijn
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Photo: Stichting Corantijn
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Photo: Stichting Corantijn
“Operation Tulong” is the name of the campaign with which the New Apostolic Church South-East Asia is responding to the destruction left by Typhoon Nina—also known as Nock-Ten—in the Philippines in late December. The storm slammed into the Bicol region on Christmas Day. Before it made landfall, more than 200,000 people were evacuated so that the storm claimed only a few lives. It did, however, cause a great deal of damage and destruction to infrastructure.
Among those responding was the Church organisation NACSEA Relief. It mobilised its resources and staff in order to help affected families around the congregations Naga, Goa, Libmaanan, Calabange, and Albay. About a thousand people received food packs including clothing. Donations came from the Filipino congregation of Makati and from the congregation of Uster in Switzerland.
The New Apostolic aid organisations Missionswerk from Germany and NAK-Humanitas from Switzerland were also active beyond their own borders. In October last year, we reported that Hurricane Matthew had left hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti homeless and deprived them of their livelihood.
NAK Humanitas donated 25,000 Swiss francs to the Red Cross to help fund the distribution of aid supplies and assist with rebuilding. Helping people to generate income is what the Missionswerk has in mind with its donation of 10,000 euros to nph, a relief organisation for children. The money will be used to build fishing boats.
Stichting Corantijn, the relief organisation of the New Apostolic Church in the Netherlands, managed to come up with some furniture for a school that is currently being renovated in Suriname. A regular sponsor had notified the aid organisation of a Tweet by the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation Amsterdam that the International School had 80 used desks and chairs they no longer needed.
The staff of Stichting Corantijn reacted promptly and made an appointment with the principal of the school. They picked up the furniture in early January. The desks and chairs are now being readied for shipment. The aid organisation plans to ship the container to Suriname in February or March, where the desks and chairs will be used to furnish a school building that is currently being renovated in the interior.