How can we help out in the Phillipines?

There has been Massive flooding in the Philippines, set off by a tropical storm over the weekend, that has left at least 140 dead and prompted quick action from Christian relief groups. Catholic Relief Services Country Representative Luc Picard stated that: "Many of the people who have lost everything are sleeping in schools right now," "They're calling this the Katrina of the Philippines."

On Monday, the Philippine government appealed for international help after declaring a "state of calamity" in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, including many that have not flooded before. Officials said more than 450,000 people were affected by the storm, including some 115,000 brought to about 200 schools, churches and other evacuation shelters.

A friend of mine asked me to comment about this and prompt others to help out financially. My friend lives in the Philippines and her concern is that those in the country itself to not have enough resources to provide all the assistance that is needed.

For seven years I have contributed monthly to an organization named World Vision. I've long known how blessed I am simply because I live in America and been mindful of the scripture in Luke 12:42-28 where Jesus explained an illustration about a master who entrusted various amounts of money to 3 different servants. In the second half of the 48th verse He makes this point:

When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required. (NLT)

My relationship with World Vision began back when God did something that seemed impossible to me at the time. As a single mother at that time, with 3 young sons, He blessed me with being able to purchase a condo without any money down. I was so grateful, and so conscious of God's goodness to me and how so much of the world lived in poverty, that I decided to see how I could give more. After researching Christian international relief groups, I found that there are lots of good ones out there but I really liked World Vision. Charity Navigator gave World Vision an exceptional four star rating with regard to“Efficiency” - the day to day financial operations, whether they maintain reasonable administrative costs and ensure that most spending is on programs. (Charity Navigator gave World Vision a three star rating with regard to "Capacity" because they don't think World Vision keeps enough money in reserves.) So I decided that, since I had 3 children of my own, I would sponsor 3 with World Vision. Just like my own, I got 3 boys (in fact I got them as close in age to my own as possible); 2 from the Philippines and 1 from Bolivia. Over the past 7 years it has been awesome to participate in this project and I've always been impressed with how World Vision does things.

As of this past Monday, World Vision had already been distributing relief packs by helicopter, in partnership with the Philippine Coastguard. World Vision is now aiming to target four of the worst affected areas of Manila – Marikina, Cainta, Rizal, Pasig – which are home to thousands of poor settlement homes based near rivers and in low-lying areas.

World Vision is also planning to distribute rice, sardines, cooking oil, water, iodized salt, biscuits and canned meat. Other items include mosquito nets, blankets and kerosene lamps or candles along with hygiene items including soap, laundry soap and women's sanitary items.

If you want to donate money to World Vision to help with flood relief in the Philippines you can go here to do so (just copy and paste the address below into your browser):

http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?section=10324&item=1328100