Harvard Philippine Forum Responds to Typhoon Haiyan

As Harvard students with families in southeast Asia sought assurance of their relatives’ safety this weekend, students groups on campus began mobilizing relief efforts to support victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which made landfall in the Philippines at the end of last week.

“I didn’t think much of Haiyan because we were so used to typhoons,”  Lance B. Katigbak ’16 said. “Over 20 typhoons hit the Philippines each year.”

Katigbak , a member of the Harvard Philippine Forum, was born and raised in Muntinlupa City of Metro Manila and lived in the Philippines his entire life, until transferring from the University of Philippines to Harvard last semester.

On Friday, the storm swept across central Philippines, ravaging the country and later making landfall in Vietnam, Taiwan, and China.  With wind speeds up to 195 miles per hour and at least 10,000 reported casualties so far, meteorologists have labeled Haiyan as one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded.

“Once all the news articles started coming out about the magnitude of the typhoon, I began to feel worried,” Katigbak said. “This typhoon was so devastating not only because it was incredibly strong, but also because the area it hit was very weak.”

For those Harvard students with families currently living in the Philippines, news of the typhoon caused immediate concern for the safety of their relatives.

Michelle D.L. Ferreol ’15,  Co-President of HPF and a Crimson news editor, said that initial calls after the storm to her family in Manila went unanswered. Eventually, she was able to make contact with relatives and confirm their safety.

“My family had gotten the lighter end of it, so I was really grateful for that,” Ferreol said.

Other students with relatives in the Philippines, however, said that they are still anxious to hear updates on their family members’ status.

“Some of our HPF members are still waiting to hear back from relatives in affected areas,” HPF Co-President Shannen D. Kim ’15 said.

Relief efforts at Harvard are underway, including an HPF-planned benefit concert called “Singing in the Rain” on Friday at 8 p.m. in Quincy Dining Hall. The group hopes to raise money and awareness of the disaster and those affected—goals they pursued with a similar event in 2009 following Typhoon Ketsana.

“Filipino students from many graduate schools at Harvard have reached out to us and are helping us organize this event,” Kim said. “Many students from schools in the greater Boston…will be in attendance and be performing in the show.”

Ferreol added that the University agreed to waive venue fees and provide security guards for the event.

She also said that HPF is planning long-term relief efforts, such as film screenings and dinners, in conjunction with the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, which sponsored relief events after the 2011 earthquake in Japan.

Viet D. Tran ‘16, the Vice President of the Harvard Vietnamese Association said that the HVA would love to get involved in relief efforts, but mobilizing contacts on the ground in Vietnam has been more difficult than usual, since Typhoon Haiyan hit Vietnam more recently than the Philippines. Still, Tran said that he was optimistic.

“They are very resilient people,” he said of the region’s inhabitants. “It’ll be difficult, but they will be able to get through it. They will definitely need help, though.”