UN Launches Global Appeal to Aid Philippine Survivors After Typhoon Bopha

UN Launches Global Appeal to Aid Philippine Survivors After Typhoon Bopha
Philippine Current Events

Davao, Philippines

In order to help survivors of deadly typhoon Bopha, which killed more than 600 people and displaced millions in southern Philippines, the United Nations on Monday launched $65 million global appeal, said Luiza Carvalho, country officer for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Carvalho said that the fund would be used to provide essential services like food, water and shelter to 480,000 people.

Talking to reporters in Davao city, Carvalho, who visited flood- and landslide-hit Mindanao island recently, expressed disbelief on the destruction she saw.

"Areas which have been completely devastated, with only a few damaged buildings still standing. Debris from houses, buildings, landslides and logs. Entire plantations wiped out," she said, adding that this was the strongest typhoon to have ever hit the country in more than eight decades.

She added that such mass destruction could not be revived overnight and stressed on the need for an aid program to not only reconstruct the farm sector but also help survivors to recover emotionally.

Tens of thousands of Filipino workers, who have been working on banana harvest, are without an immediate source of income as typhoon and flood have destroyed a third of the country's harvest.