We are FILIPINO NURSES here in LEEDS-UK  who all came here in the United Kingdom and coming from different areas in the PHILIPPINES.  We don’t know each other from back home but being away from our motherland made us closer and started to build our community to unite all the Filipinos together.  As you all know and surely you understand that there’s no place like HOME and it is hard for us to leave our country.  We Filipinos have different reasons why we have to leave the Philippines.  It is a sacrifice we have to make to help our families.  The majority of nurses left the country to come here and you find them anywhere in the world.  We left our country to help other countries in need of nurses.  We worked hard and helped other people but we fail to realise that our own fellow countrymen needs our help. 

Why we organised the group?  We formed this group in the hope that this organisation will help our people and to continue to help other people who will be needing help in the future.

We are saddened by the recent events in the Philippines. Just a few weeks ago, a magnitude of 7.2 earth quake had struck the central region of Philippines, an island nation in the Pacific.  And now, yet another disaster much worst has truly brought our country to its knees and we don’t know how we can get back on our feet. How could such a disaster strike twice? Winds blowing at a speed of 170 miles/hour sent walls of seawater pouring into unsuspecting towns and villages like a tsunami, this washed everything away as people helplessly clung onto poles, trees and anything they can hold onto to survive. Then when water receded, it had left a huge trail of destruction. Now nearly 10, 000 estimated lives lost in one town alone. You don’t see everything on the news but only the town greatly affected.  We would like to let you know that there are other towns too that are affected by this terrible disaster. Some of us are lucky that our families are safe but some of our friend’s families were greatly affected with the devastating typhoon. Until this time, some are still waiting for news hoping that their families survived the disaster. It made it even harder as there are no power and communication lines available due to the disaster to be able to find out how their loved ones back home. When we watch the news about the Philippines, we feel so helpless. We feel so sad for those affected by this terrible disaster. Being far away, we can only hope and pray for our people in the Philippines. The amount of lives lost so far is really unbelievable!  We try to be strong and we know we’ll get through this together but we will be able to do it even better with ALL your help and support.  We appreciate each and every one of our bosses, colleagues and friends who showed their outpouring concerns for us and for our families back home.  You don’t know how much this means so much to us.  You gave us the will to stay strong for our country.  We can say that on the brighter side, the disaster has made us even stronger.  It gave us Filipino Nurses the opportunity to create this group to organise a charity work to help our fellow Filipinos in this time where they need it most.

 

To start, we just want to share to you why everyone is talking about the Super storm Haiyan.  The typhoon slammed into the Philippines early Friday morning of November 8, 2013 and is one of the biggest storms recorded on the planet. Here are a few things you might not know about the storm:

• Super Typhoon Haiyan was winds as strong as 195 miles per hour and gusts up to 235 miles per hour. This is one of the highest wind speeds ever recorded.
   
• The strength of Hyan is equal to a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. Typhoons are the same type of storms as hurricanes.
   
• Haiyan is stronger than any hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. Hurricane Camille hit the U.S. Gulf Coast with wind speeds of about 190 miles per hour.
   
• The storm is more than 300 miles wide. That width is about equal to the distance between Sacramento and Pismo Beach.
   
• Haiyan is the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2013.The Philippines typically gets hit by more typhoons than any country.
   
• The storm is known as Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines.
   
• Haiyan is the Chinese word for petrel, a type of bird that lives over the open sea and returns to land only for breeding.

Our appeal is to help the people in the Philippines get back on their knees and move on!  It will be very hard and we know we cannot do this without YOUR help. RISE  Philippine, RISE!!!

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