Rain Love from New York!

New York, NY. Young Filipino professionals like Mark (left) and his friends gathered some clothing donations to start New York off.

 Here are the contents of the first boxes - clothes for women, men and infants.

And, Ms. Geraldine Repollo of the Philippine Red Cross will be receiving these in approximately 

30 days.

Here's Rain Love on Manila-NY head Deb loading them up in the LBC van!

List of Donors of Rain Love on Manila in the US

Thank you for helping us help our fellow Filipinos in need!

LA - in kind
Darlene Frankera and family 
Pia de Leon
Paolo de Leon
Fran de Leon
Stella Dalupan
Diane Graebner
Leonard Gonzalez
Crissy Guerrero
Laura Henry
Rose Johnson
Jessica McKeehan
Tomas Moreno
Tet Ramirez and family
Jon Lawrence Rivera
Zenaida Rivera
Victoria Smith
Leslie Sloan
Beam Thompson
Pinky Turzo
Junko Goda


NY - shipping funds, and in kind
Tom Riddle
Debbie Chan
Michelle
Bret
Lana
Winnie Chan
Daniel Ramos
Jon Cotugno
Carolyna
Luisa
Daniell
Eric
Twana
Ashley Fornuff
Tanya
Martha
Feline
Pam
Seon
Patrick
Steven
Ina
Nicole
Dave Kief
Stephanie Houelle
Ebony Judge
Shari Silverstein
Eddie del Risco
Shirley Dukes Alston
Dave Herz
Mark, Chanel, Michael
Noel and family, c/o Chilai

Rain Love on Manila shipped from LA!

West Hills, California. Rain Love on Manila LA Head Volunteer Ritz Calvo pictured here among the many donations from Filipinos based all over Los Angeles.

Food items, like cup noodles, soup, rice, protein bars - along with clothes and infant items were generously given.

It can't all fit in his SUV in one transport, so he made more drop-offs than originally anticipated.

 Here he is at the LBC warehouse!

We wish to thank all those who gave all these life-saving things to our less fortunate by supporting Rain Love on Manila. We will post their names here shortly. Thank you Ritz!

Some stats on the flood for everyone's information!

Rain Love U.K. sends away!

 Volunteers Gail, Pat, Phuong and Zibby send off some Love to Manila via LBC in London.

Many thanks to everyone who helped fill the jumbo box from Wembley, Highbury and Islington, Brixton, Shepherds Bush, Elephant and Castle, Bethnal Green and Deptford! Thanks LBC!

Overseas Effort = Rain Love on Manila

Click here to find out other means to send relief to the typhoon victims in Manila, Philippines.

Rain Love circa 2009 - shirts sold in Analog Soul, remember?

Rain Love on Manila reconnects with Philippine National Red Cross

Rain Love on Manila U.K.

As of August 20, here's a quick look at the goods we have! Thanks mates!

Rain Love on Manila in LA ships out!

Rain Love from LA

Los Angeles, California. Thanks to the hardworking PT and Rain Love on Manila volunteer Ritz Calvo, we have gathered this much from generous Filipinos from in and around LA!
Now the next challenge is to send this over to LBC LA, for direct shipping to the Red Cross.

It has come to our attention though that LBC will not forward donations of used clothing. The RLOM volunteers in LA and UK are devising a way to send the clothes to those in need, with or without the help of LBC. Meanwhile, RLOM in NY will still push through with shipping the items (used clothing included), from the help of friends who have donated money for shipping fare.


If you wish to send your goods directly to LBC, please wrap your food, medicine and similar donations in blankets.


In talks with a potential volunteer in Dubai! Stay tuned!

Rain Love Approaches the Philippine Consulate in NY

New York, NY. Rain Love on Manila reached out to the Philippine Consulate in New York this week to seek for help in hosting a temporary drop-off venue, so that it would be easier for donors to access. However, our group and initiative were met with disappointment. Because we are operating on our own initiative, they have advised us to simply help in other means, like join a "fun run" which will happen in the next few months. Anyway, it was a government directive that specified that the items we chose to ask for - the used (but clean) clothes - are not allowed to be donated.

It makes one wonder about the concept of help, need and giving. A person in need deserves help. Those who have the capacity to help, should. Because life sometimes puts you in situations where you may be in and out of need. You help any way you can. You can give anyway you can. But you can never give what you don't have. You should not promise what you cannot deliver. On the other hand, if you are in need, you welcome whatever help you can get. But if you are lending the help to the one in need, then those people are the ones who have the right to decide what they need.

A person who has no dry clothes on his or her back would probably want something to wear. A clean pre-owned shirt is better than no shirt or a dirty one. If one has money and clothes to spare, it seems more logical to buy the needy sustenance, while giving them their own clothes, instead of buying them new threads. There is a greater symbol to passing to the other what you have used to cover yourself. "When I was hungry, you gave me food to eat. When I was naked, you clothed me."

To all those who want to help out our fellowmen, give what you can, and give what will be necessary for people to restore not just their strength, but their self-worth. Donate things that you would want someone to give you when you are the one without the clothes, without food, without shelter. Give with your heart, and nothing will be turned away.

How to Drop Off Donations

New York City, NY. The best way to contact Rain Love on Manila volunteers especially regarding drop-off arrangements is through emailing rainloveonmanila@yahoo.com. The Facebook group is also a venue to post inquiries regarding drop-offs, and to learn about what else is Rain Love on Manila doing. Please look for us at http://www.facebook.com/groups/rainloveonmanila/.


The main number for leaving SMS messages is 646-820-3327, within the US.

Right now these are the 3 locations for the drop-offs:

If it is from NYC - 182-25 Wexford Terrace, Midland Manor, Jamaica NYC 11432. Volunteer Deb handles this location. Times and dates of the drop must be coordinated through email.

If it is from London - 165 Metro Central Heights 119 Newington Causeway London UK SE1 6BT
Volunteer Pat handles this location. Times and dates of the drop must also be coordinated through email.

If it is from LA - 14423 Hamlin Street, Van Nuys, CA 91401. Volunteer Ritz handles this location.
Monday through Fridays, between 9-5pm, someone can receive the packages. But prior arrangement must be made through email. Please indicate that drop-offs are meant for Ritz Calvo.

All the care packages collected from these locations will be shipped via LBC to the address in Manila: 8100 C. Raymundo Avenue, Caniogan, Pasig City 1600. From here, it will be turned over to the Philippine National Red Cross.

In LA or UK, if people have filled more than 1 box of LBC, and wish to drop it off at LBC directly (as they also handle distribution straight to Red Cross), donors may request a copy of the Rain Love on Manila logo to be stuck to the box, for identification. It is advisable to email RLOM a list and also to print a list of contents along with the packages that the donors will drop off, so that all items will be accounted for.

Thank you for helping us help each other out!

Rain Love from London

The first batch of relief goods from all the way in Wembley is collected!

Rain Love Drop-Off Venues

New York, New York. Rain Love on Manila is currently gathering care packages in the residences of their volunteers. If you would like to consolidate your donations to theirs, for shipping back to Manila for the receipt of the Philippine National Red Cross, please email rainloveonmanila@yahoo.com. Indicate your name, where you are from (city, country), when you intend to do the drop-off, and we will be in touch with you. These are the cities that are currently active:

Central London, UK
Queens, NY, USA
West Hills, CA, USA

Thank you and let's keep working to send more love back home.

Statistics: Accumulated Rainfall, Day 1

Rainfall Count for 24 hours

No Land in Sight: Metro Manila Today

Bridge in Tarlac City going to Camiling town

The level of water reaching the tops of the street lamps in Marikina City

UST university campus field

World Vision tells Rain Love on Manila:

"You may be interested to know that World Vision is readying relief efforts in response to the flooding in the Philippines. As soon as the flood significantly recedes, our response teams will visit the affected areas of Malabon, Manila, Cavite and Zambales."

Thank you World Vision!

Rain Love Again

While the eyes of the world remain on London for the Olympic games in its gob-smacking spectacle, my country, the Philippines sinks under a national disaster of apocalyptic rains that continue to drown it.

I hear from the news that capital city of Manila has had 504 millimeters or 20 inches of rain – and that apparently it’s not yet over. To put this into perspective, Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and most destructive calamities of the United States felt rainfall of 14 inches.

140,000 people have been forced out of their homes. There are deep waters, waist deep and even higher floods, overflowing rivers and dams, ferocious landslides, which have buried communities, stranded cars, blocked roads, trapped families on roofs, and killed people. The death toll of the country is up to 53 today, August 7.

My country is under complete red alert. Where will the 7,107 islands of the country find itself after a storm bigger than its landmass leaves it? How will the 92 million Filipinos survive? Being a Filipino away from the Philippines, seeing the deadly disaster that’s happened only through a laptop screen, I immediately try to reach my parents back home, feel relief to find out only an inch of water has seeped through our home, but at the same time I feel the pang of anxiety for the rest of my country who might not be as lucky with unimaginable water levels. This misfortune that has struck, I am filled with hope that there can only be light at the end.

Because the country has seen a disaster just as deadly before, not even 3 years ago, called Ondoy, we already know that the effects of this storm are far-reaching and profound. And because we have seen this before, then we’ve already seen how much people can do, what people can give, what people can be to turn our country from what it looks like now, to what it can become.

With the recent debate of the RH bill that has divided the country, and now with another great storm, I know this flood, might its waters linger for weeks, will float something else – something good to the country, as people rise up with nationalism, pick up a brother, and take control to turn the tide themselves.

Here in London, while the Games have united people under the banner of ambition, hard work and competition, in Manila – I know that we have just as dramatic a lesson from the storm, which is that when we are united with a purpose, it can bring out the best.

During times like these, there is no more government, there are no rich or poor, there are no drenched or dry - there are only people - people who are cold, people who are hungry, and people who need help but cannot call for help. I'm writing on behalf of my people, to you, friends, if you can spare some time to gather things that can provide relief to Filipinos at this time of "endless dusk" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19159509).

My sister has started a disaster relief campaign called Rain Love on Manila (rainloveonmanila.blogspot.com) in 2009, which helped create care packages to send back to our country for the victims, in cooperation with the Philippine National Red Cross. Today, we begin the Rain Love on Manila 2012 relief campaign for last night’s victims by collecting anything you feel like donating.

Today, any of these things will be most helpful:

1) basic clothes - tops, bottoms, underwear

2) rain gear and cold weather clothes

3) flotation devices - old air beds, life vests, flotation sleeves

4) basic food - rice, powdered milk for infants, cup noodles, canned goods

5) blankets, pillows - some people are living in makeshift evacuation centers like schools, gyms, parking garages, without facilities

6) funds to cover the shipping of these boxes via LBC

personal email: flores.patriciaanne@gmail.com
personal email of my sister: debflo@gmail.com
campaign email: rainloveonmanila@yahoo.com
SMS (UK based): +44776821964
SMS (NY based): 646-820-3327

As of today, there are Rain Love on Manila volunteer teams assembling in Manila, UK, California and NY, to better facilitate the collection of care.