Pam Griffin
On Saturday, Sept. 26, Typhoon Ketsana slammed into the Luzon region of the Philippines, and the villages supported by Destin’s Mission Love Seeds took a direct hit. Several villages had landslides where homes were destroyed and lives were lost.
Fely Zapanta talks with villagers where funerals will be held in the open-air sports center in Antipolo City.
The Mission’s coordinator in the Philippines is Fely Zapanta. She told Mission founders Barbi Carroll and John Hawbaker that her home in Antipolo City, about 45 minutes from Manila, was flooded up to her neck.
She and her family were able to survive in their attic, recently completed by Mission Love Seeds. She also said that she first saved her computer and Mission files so she could keep in touch with Destin.
Zapanta has sent pictures of the disaster and stories of the pain she has seen — parents weeping over caskets of their children, many children orphaned when their parents died.
Mission Love Seeds has started an Emergency Relief Fund at its Web site, www.missionloveseeds.org. Because of the expense in shipping to the Philippines, cash donations are being requested. The money will be sent to Zapanta, who will then purchase rice, $30 for 100 pounds, sleeping mats, $5.50 each and blankets, $3.50 each.
Monday, Oct. 5, $4,000 was sent to Zapanta to purchase food for the villages.
Temporary houses, made of tarps, bamboo, twine and nails, can be built for 10 families for $232.52.
“No donation is too small,” Barbi Carroll, president of Mission Love Seeds, said. “Every little bit will help these people who are hurting.”
Hundreds of people are in need of food, clothing and sleeping mats. Clothes can be donated to MLS to be shipped at a later date. A truck will accept donations in the parking lot by the Life Center at Destin United Methodist Church.
“We can’t help everyone in the world, even though in our hearts we want to,” Carroll said.
“But we can help one area, one person, one family, one village at a time.”
This article appeared Oct. 10, 2009, in the Northwest Florida Daily News and the Walton Sun.
