How Facebook Helped Me Help Victims of Typhoon Haiyan

On Saturday November 9, I awoke in my Berlin apartment and, remembering 
the words “bracing for the typhoon” my mom had written me the day before...
I turned on the news. The images of destruction that I saw brought tears to my eyes. 
I contacted my family in Manila, my hometown for 10 years growing up. They were fine, but millions of others were not. I felt useless and far away.

Good friends of mine, Eddie and Jack, run an eco-tourism company called TAO Philippines that has been taking adventurous travelers from around the world into their paradise and supporting the local communities for the past eight years. Typhoon Haiyan, after hitting Samar, Leyte and Cebu, passed straight over Coron, Culion and the Calamian Islands, the western-most islands of the archipelago and part of the TAO Expeditions Route.

Reports were slow, as communication lines were down, but what did get through was that a TAO crewmember was lost in the upturned hull of one of their boats and one boat was missing completely. I struggled to find out more about Coron and Northern Palawan. One news article painted a gruesome picture: 80 percent of homes damaged and destroyed, 80 percent of boats destroyed, trees and vegetation stripped from the ground in Coron. I was just there in May, and I imagined the many rickety houses built on the water unable to withstand the force of wind and water. I couldn’t even begin thinking about the remote island villages, some of which we had the pleasure of visiting during a TAO Expedition.

I sat down and spent half a day writing up information in English and German while in contact with my mom and Jack in Manila. Sunday morning my Facebook Page went online: "Typhoon Haiyan Relief for Northern Palawan – Tao Philippines.” I tied up with the TAO family, knowing that they would be the most dedicated, effective and fair, and their personal connection to and knowledge of the islands and remote village communities would be perfect groundwork for relief missions. With the Page up and running, I invited my sister, my boyfriend, my mother and many friends. We linked up with the TAO Expeditions Facebook Page, and then the likes started rolling in....[...] http://www.facebookstories.com