Philippines Typhoon Bopha

Over 100,000 people have been made homeless by Typhoon Bopha (known locally as Pablo) which hit Mindanao in the southern Philippines on 4 December.

Oxfam has launched an emergency response targeting 12,000 families.

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Photo: REUTERS/Erik De Castro, courtesy of alertnet.org

Updates from Oxfam

The situation

A year after Typhoon Washi killed more than 1,300 people in the southern Philippines, Typhoon Bopha has caused landslides and floods in the island of Mindanao.

Blog: Philippines - learning lessons from the past

The wall of our house is destroyed. We need money to rebuild again and to buy food. We need clean water. We don't mind what we get; whatever help that can be offered would be good as long as we get some help and people don't forget about us.

- Anthony Francisco -

"The needs are enormous. This impact of this disaster will take a very long time to recover from" said Paul del Rosario, Oxfam's Humanitarian Programme Co-ordinator. "In the short term, we need to get people urgent help - basic shelter and access to safe water and food. In the medium to longer term, we need to support families with livelihoods. Farming communities have been the worst hit and it could take many years for them to fully recover."

Oxfam's response

Oxfam and its humanitarian partners in the Philippines, the Humanitarian Response Consortium, or HRC, have begun an emergency response targeting communities worst affected by the Typhoon. Key priorities include getting clean, safe drinking water to disaster-hit areas, establishing basic sanitation facilities and providing cash and starting cash-for-work projects to help families buy food, clothing and other shelter needs.

Water treatment supplies and hygiene kits are being sent to the worst-hit areas in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental provinces, where around 505,000 people have been severely affected.

The seven-month emergency response targets 12,000 families. It is the biggest rural response to a natural disaster that the agencies have ever mounted in the Philippines.

You can help: donate to Oxfam's emergency work worldwide

Update: 13 December 2012