Starting the New Year Right: A SteemPH and SteemPH.Cebu Outreach

Hello Steemians!

It’s almost the new year and many of us are prepping our firecrackers and bountiful feasts. It’s a time to reminisce the good memories we’ve had and be with the people who matter most to us.

For the residents of Macasandig and Consolacion in Cagayan de Oro City, the new year brings new challenges.

A house swept by the flood in Tibasak.

Many of the people affected by typhoon Vinta are either spending their new year in the evacuation centers or are still trying to clean up their houses. Without access to flowing water, this has become extremely difficult.

Boys helping out in clearing mud from houses.

Another area in Macasandig, St. Ignatius.

For almost a week now, we’ve been trying to collect funds and donations for us to lend a hand an assist in providing the communities with their needs such as food, clean water, toiletries among others.

Thanks to the help of @steemph through @deveerei and @steemph.cebu through @jassennessaj, and through your help, dear Steemians, we have given over 300 relief goods to 3 different communities.

Thank you for your generosity!

Each food pack contains easy to open canned goods, and food packets, and a kilo of rice.

Canned goods and food packets.

Sacks of rice.

Our active volunteers from Kuya Fish Campaign, ThinkLogic Marketing, Alyansang Atenista and individual volunteers were kind enough to help in the packing and distribution of the goods. Barangay Kagawads Amor Sanchez from Macasandig and Keith Paasa from Consolacion were also very kind to assist us in the distribution.

Volunteers packing.

Arranging the food packs.

In the last outreach, the group helped out the Macasandig Evacuation Center. In this project, the group went to the communities and distributed there. The families in the communities don’t go to the evacuation area since they don’t want to leave their houses. They are also very busy trying to clean up their houses and protect them from theft and looting. These communities receive less help from groups since most efforts are directed to the evacuation centres.

So the group targeted 3 areas. Two of which were in Macasandig. These are in Tibasak and Tambo Macasandig. They’re the badly hit areas since they’re nearest the river. Water levels rose to at least ten feet.

It’s very difficult to manage our way around the areas since a number of them are still covered in mud and water.

Distribution in Tibasak, Macasandig.

The last community that was benefitted was Barangay 13 in Consolacion.

The Consolacion area is an area under the Marcos bridge in Cagayan de Oro City. Their houses were almost covered to the roof with water.

Distribution in Consolacion.

It’s a bittersweet feeling to go around the city. We get to see the devastation, and it is very disheartening. But then we see the resolve of the families and communities, the smiles that light up ther faces when they receive our simple gifts make all that we do worth it.

Thanks to your generosity and to our volunteers, we were able to help over 300 families. With your help, we can still reach out to more families and communities. You can help by resteeming, commenting and voting on this post (proceeds will be given to those affected by typhoon Vinta), or you can donate to @steemph or @steemph.cebu so they can come up with more projects like these to help out individuals and communities.

From the depths of our hearts, and from the bottom of our muddy, trusty shoes, we wish you a happy new year and happy holidays! May you be blessed, and may you make people happier this year!

Thank you for your help! We hope to do more next year!