One is never alone in trying to do something positive in the world. Good only comes as a team effort with a lot of invisible hands. I work for the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), a non-profit organization filled with passionate and committed individuals who seek out the most vulnerable refugees and displaced people, often women and children. Following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Opening Ceremony donated 1 percent of Net Sales from its US, UK, and online stores through December 2 to the WRC to fund an assessment in the town of Basey. Half of the 15,000 households in Basey were destroyed by Haiyan, known as Yolanda locally, and the rest were damaged.
The WRC, where I work as a senior program officer, was alerted to the situation in Basey through a chance meeting with Renee Patron in Cebu two days after I arrived in the Philippines. Renee is a young Filipino American woman based in Los Angeles. Her company, Banago, produces hand-woven bags and home accessories and employs 800 people in Basey. Renee's parents live in Guiuan, a nearby city where Typhoon Yolanda first made landfall. She and some enterprising friends from the local private sector were collecting food and basic goods to distribute, and within five minutes of meeting, Renee invited me to go to Guiuan to conduct an assessment.
On November 23, Renee and I squeezed onto a US military Osprey aircraft that took us down to Guiuan, thanks to several chivalrous soldiers from the Philippine and US armies. When we landed, the city's vice mayor drove us around the town center. The impact of the destruction left no one untouched. While Renee and the relief team distributed goods, I took a motorcycle and further assessed the types of damage and the current state of housing. The villages along the coast were hardest hit. Only dark patches and piles of debris marked where homes and neighborhoods once stood. Fishermen’s tools, boats and nets, women’s cooking gear, and tools for processing fish and crops were gone. We drove further and passed a surf resort that was decimated: only pieces of bungalows hinted at a tourism industry that had been picking up in the area.
Basey, 120 kilometers from Guiuan, is the city where Banago, Renee Patron’s company, sources materials and labor for its bags and home accessories. This provides regular income to 800 workers, 70 percent of whom are women. When the typhoon hit Basey, it destroyed not only these workers' homes––the places where most of them produce their merchandise––but also essential materials and equipment.
Looking at the devastation in Basey and Guiuan, it was clear to us that food aid only goes so far. People want to live and work in dignity and support themselves and their families. Thanks to the joint assessment funded in part by Opening Ceremony, the WRC is now teaming up with Global Communities, a humanitarian nonprofit, to start a small pilot project with Banago in Basey. They will provide the essential materials for people to rebuild their homes and their livelihoods. By supporting these men and women, the partnership will enable the supply chain to restore itself, allowing people to support themselves in the long-term.![]()
Despite damage from Typhoon Haiyan, businesses are beginning to restart. Here, a man fashions brooms from grass.
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The WRC, where I work as a senior program officer, was alerted to the situation in Basey through a chance meeting with Renee Patron in Cebu two days after I arrived in the Philippines. Renee is a young Filipino American woman based in Los Angeles. Her company, Banago, produces hand-woven bags and home accessories and employs 800 people in Basey. Renee's parents live in Guiuan, a nearby city where Typhoon Yolanda first made landfall. She and some enterprising friends from the local private sector were collecting food and basic goods to distribute, and within five minutes of meeting, Renee invited me to go to Guiuan to conduct an assessment.
On November 23, Renee and I squeezed onto a US military Osprey aircraft that took us down to Guiuan, thanks to several chivalrous soldiers from the Philippine and US armies. When we landed, the city's vice mayor drove us around the town center. The impact of the destruction left no one untouched. While Renee and the relief team distributed goods, I took a motorcycle and further assessed the types of damage and the current state of housing. The villages along the coast were hardest hit. Only dark patches and piles of debris marked where homes and neighborhoods once stood. Fishermen’s tools, boats and nets, women’s cooking gear, and tools for processing fish and crops were gone. We drove further and passed a surf resort that was decimated: only pieces of bungalows hinted at a tourism industry that had been picking up in the area.
Basey, 120 kilometers from Guiuan, is the city where Banago, Renee Patron’s company, sources materials and labor for its bags and home accessories. This provides regular income to 800 workers, 70 percent of whom are women. When the typhoon hit Basey, it destroyed not only these workers' homes––the places where most of them produce their merchandise––but also essential materials and equipment.
Looking at the devastation in Basey and Guiuan, it was clear to us that food aid only goes so far. People want to live and work in dignity and support themselves and their families. Thanks to the joint assessment funded in part by Opening Ceremony, the WRC is now teaming up with Global Communities, a humanitarian nonprofit, to start a small pilot project with Banago in Basey. They will provide the essential materials for people to rebuild their homes and their livelihoods. By supporting these men and women, the partnership will enable the supply chain to restore itself, allowing people to support themselves in the long-term.
Despite damage from Typhoon Haiyan, businesses are beginning to restart. Here, a man fashions brooms from grass.
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