Denners in The Ring of Fire and how you can help!

Getting Hands On.

I’ve never really done any volunteering before, not sure bob-a-job counts (born in the seventies, grew up in the eighties…).

I’ve looked for opportunities in the last few years, didn’t find anything that matched up to what I wanted to do and VSO turned me down .

Then a friend of mine, Shano (he’s Australian, don’t mention the cricket), said he was off to the Philippines, last December, with All Hands Volunteers.  This was to help with the disaster recovery from Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) and the October Earthquake it sounded interesting.

So I applied.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one. All Hands had received over 2000 applications and had space for 50 people at one time so I was on the waiting list.  They have two live projects, Project Bohol and Project Leyte.  The first was in response to the Earthquake, the second in response to the Typhoon.

I’ve now been accepted on to Project Bohol and fly out of the UK on Wednesday 29th January 2014.  I am volunteering for 3 weeks and then having a bit of R&R elsewhere in the Philippines.

The work consists of  helping to make people’s houses, churches, schools, community buildings safe and if necessary, knocking them down to make room for rebuilding.  Have a watch of the video below to get an idea of what it’s all about.

60 Days of Project Bohol

It’s manual work, big hammers and concrete, proper graft in the tropics! Oh and it’s the rainy season.

In a tent in the rainy season.

All Hands provide 3 meals a day when I’m working (6 days out of 7) and somewhere for me to pitch my tent. Yes, I’m going to an Earthquake zone to carry out manual labour, for 6 days a week, in 30+ degree heat, in the rainy season and to sleep in a tent!

How can you help?

All Hands Volunteers are a UK (no. 1139938) and US (Tax ID #20-3414952) registered charity and thereby rely on donations to enable them to arrange the logistics supporting all the volunteers. That support begins in Bohol, I’ve paid for my flights to get there.  I’m raising funds for the UK Charity (via Justgiving.com), 100% of the funds donated are allocated for the Philippines projects.

I would really appreciate it if you would support my efforts by making a donation to All Hands Volunteers.

In fact, I’m going to further encourage you to donate. I’ll post or personally deliver a DVD, Book (UK Mainland only, one per person/household) or High-res JPEG of your choice that is available on DennersHQ.com in exchange for a minimum donation of £10 to All Hands Volunteers.  This is a limited time offer! Donate by midnight Sunday 19th January 2014.

Email your choice to Iain [at] DennersHQ dot com, there is only one copy of each, so first come first served!

You need to have made the donation and emailed me your choice of DVD, Book or JPEG by midnight Sunday 19th January 2014 . Just to be clear, I’ll pay the postage, anything you donate goes to All Hands directly, I don’t get a penny of it.

Please do not use the Paypal ‘Add to Cart’ buttons on DennersHQ.com but donate here at Justgiving.com.

Thanks in advance

 

Below is more info on the Typhoon, Earthquake and All Hands Volunteers.

The Background

7.2 Earthquake and the strongest Typhoon to make landfall all within three weeks!  

Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on Friday 8th November, it killed thousands of people and damaged or destroyed homes numbering in the 100,000s. The main brunt was on the island of Leyte in the Visayas region of the Philippines.

On the 15th October 2013, three weeks before the Typhoon struck, the same area of the Philippines had experienced a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Although the Philippines sits in the Ring of Fire the area affected was not accustomed to earthquakes. The estimate is that 35,000 homes have been partially damaged or totally destroyed. This affected the island of Bohol and Cebu also in the Visayas region of the Philippines.

You can read more about the Earthquake here and the Typhoon here.

All Hands Volunteers

In 2005, David Campbell flew to Thailand after the Boxing Day Tsunami to see what he could do to help. He found that unaffiliated volunteers were being turned away by the Aid Organisations so he and some others set up a group to do it themselves. This later become All Hands Volunteers in response to Hurricane Katrina.

All Hands Volunteers provides hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world, with maximum impact and minimum bureaucracy. The UK trust is run solely by volunteers ensuring that 100% of all funds raised go directly to those in most need.

You can read more about All Hands on their website.