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Social media drives Mindanao relief efforts


It was the morning of December 17 when netizens on Facebook and Twitter started receiving tidbits of news in the wake of Storm Sendong. I even received an inquiry from a college friend asking if everything was alright with my family back in Iligan. I told him that I was not able to contact them yet. It's just a storm, I thought. But it turned out that power and phone lines were down in Iligan City. Something was clearly up.
 
That was why Iliganons started turning to social media for news about the devastation the night before, when almost 300 Iliganons never woke up to see their families again —the death toll from Sendong. The storm known internationally as "Washi" displaced 10,341 families and 45,821 dependents, damaged 1,635 homes and partially damaged 1,652. It also left 230 persons missing.
 
One for Iligan Movement
 
On that same morning, together with Alexander Singcol and Lisa Marie Mirasol of the Iligan Bloggers Society, we sounded a call for help for the victims. The campaign was given the name "One for Iligan", referring to the fact that you can donate as little as $1 for the Typhoon victims over a Paypal account.
 
Over the course of two days, the campaign has been embraced by other Iliganons. Facebook profiles and Twitter Photos have been replaced with a One for Iligan emblem created by MSU-IIT DiscArtes. Netizens on Twitter have also been using the hashtag #oneforiligan together with #helpcdo for our neighboring city Cagayan de Oro which was also hit by the storm.
 
 
 
One for Iligan has now branched out to campaigns of Iliganons from all over the world. They have set up their own "One for Iligan" fund drive and donation campaigns. A group of professionals and alumni from MSU-IIT also setup the site of the same name (www.oneforiligan.com) to coordinate the efforts in gathering information through an interactive crisis map. All done in the spirit of unity and "bayanihan" for the Iliganons.
 
Online Donations
 
December 21 is Day 4 of our One for Iligan movement, and we are overwhelmed by the response from our friends from all over the world. We have received donations from 324 people from different parts of the country and around the world with amounts, as little as $1. Some, of course, gave larger amounts for the victims. Paypal proved invaluable, as it leveraged the Internet for sending financial help for the victims.
 
 
Overwhelming Support from Organizations
 
This is just the beginning. Aside from providing immediate relief for the victims, the Iligan Bloggers Society volunteers have also collaborated with the tech giant Google to help launch the People Finder and Crisis Map landing pages for Typhoon Sendong.
 
"Iligan Bloggers Society, Inc has partnered with Calda Pizza Iligan City to serve as drop off point for in kind donations from Iligan-based donors," said Lisa Mirasol, one of the movers for #oneforiligan.
 
There have also been overflowing requests from Iliganons based outside the province to send in donations. We have a Cebu drop off center via Seawalk Trading through Cokaliong Shipping Lines who will ship the donations  for free. For Makati and Quezon via the "Iliganons Sa Manila, Inc.". We also got the support from the Iligan branch of LBC Foundation to directly drop One for Iligan donations at Calda Pizza.
 
Since the immediate needs of the evacuees include food, we also partnered with Jacko's to provide us with cooked meals for distribution for the evac centers identified for the day. "For now we have not zeroed in on one evacuation center since the organization has decided to share whatever the resources available to all affected Sendong victims," Mirasol adds.
 
The local telcos, Globe and Smart, also came to the aid of the group to help out with getting mobile credits in their coordination efforts.
 
Challenges of the Group
 
But handling a relief operation is not at all a breeze. The group encountered various challenges that seem to be very different every day.
 
One of it is using Paypal as the payment system. There is a wait time of three business days in getting the funds to the local account. And since funds are badly needed immediately, on hand cash of the IBS Society were used first to cover the expenses of the relief operation. We have just setup a donate link instead to cope with the influx of donations and to make it easier for people. A simple click of the button will now show them a form to donate via Paypal.
 
Another is that since there is already a widespread use of the One for Iligan in other NGOs, we had to constantly remind people that we will in no way be accountable to those funds that come in on other accounts other than those the IBS published.
 
Coordinating efforts was also a challenge since the current IBS president Xyza Yape is also a victim of the flash flood. She had been found in one of the evacuation centers all bruised up together with her family. The responsibility then fell on the hands of the unaffected members in the group.
 
Lastly, being a small group of bloggers that was just founded in February this year and only recently incorporated in October, the team only has a handful of volunteers. The responsibilities in handling a relief operation is all too great. But at the moment, we have announced our call for volunteers to help out with the group. So far we had favorable response. — TJD, GMA News Fleire Castro is a Cebu-based certified blog entrepreneur and inbound marketing professional. She heads Third Team Media, a digital agency specializing in providing assistance for international and local small and medium enterprises in their social media marketing campaigns.
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