It’s one thing to help someone when they ask for help. But it’s another thing when help is offered even before someone asks.
This is exactly how ANCOP Community Development Head Efren Tompong describes ANCOP Australia’s track record of being the first to donate and extend help when typhoons strike the Philippines as they usually do.
“[ANCOP Australia] is among the first donor countries that always helps the Philippines in times of calamities,” he shared in an interview.
Quick to respond
Glace Caballo, ANCOP Operations Head, notes that sometimes even before ANCOP makes an official call for donations, ANCOP Australia will send in funds for Filipinos surely affected by the 20 or so typhoons that hit the country a year.
Recently, CFC Australia mustered Php 800, 000 (AUD 21,460) for Typhoons Rolly and Ulysses that devastated Bicol, Metro Manila, and Northern Luzon late last year.
ANCOP used the first tranche of the donations for shelter repair kits that included plywood and corrugated galvanized iron, as well as clothes for families in the most affected areas.
CAGFI’s ‘cardinal rule’
In Catanduanes, shelter repair kits, costing Php 5,000 (AUD 135) each, were given to some 106 beneficiary families.
Tompong also specially noted that the local Program Implementation Team used Php 70, 000 (AUD 1, 877) from Australia’s donations to finance the roof repair of the Refuge Center in Mercedes, Camarines Norte. CFC ANCOP Global Foundation Inc. added Php30,000 to round off the amount to Php 100,000.
The parish served as an evacuation site for the local community but eventually got damaged because of Typhoon Rolly, which recorded top wind speeds of 315 kilometers per hour.
Meanwhile, some 200 families in Northern Luzon, in Cagayan, received cash assistance of Php 1,000 (AUD 27), totaling AUD 5, 365, for their immediate needs.
Tompong stressed the “cardinal rule” in CFC ANCOP Global Foundation Inc. of having assistance sent a day after a request for help is made.
More than the material
Without a doubt, ANCOP Australia’s speedy response contributes to the timely operations of CFC ANCOP Global Foundation Inc. from Manila.
“Also, more than the material things [we offer to those affected], it is actually the love of God that is manifested every time we help,” added Tompong. (Nirva Dela Cruz)
