Hi, my name is Cleveland English. Thank you for taking a couple of min to check out my video about how we can help out in the Philippines. By now everyone has heard of the disastrous typhoon that tore through the Philippines leaving countless thousands Dead, missing, and homeless. If you haven't, or if you want a better scale of this destruction check out the link below for the latest stories. BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-... USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/b... I never collected for disaster relief, I've never done the work for it before. However, when I saw the pictures and images of what had happened, when I read about the bodies being slung over tree branches like some sort of strange fruit, hung out to dry by a wrathful Mother Nature, I felt something. I felt the need to go there and do something. Now, you'll see TONS and I mean TONS of people and organizations, asking you for help there. And thank goodness there are this many because it will take all of them, and then some to help the people there climb up from the devastation that has befallen them. What they do is provide the life saving supplies, food, water, shelter, medical supplies, baby formula, you name it. Many do other services like search and rescue. However what I'm asking you to help me with is the biggest problem that faces everyone there right now. Logistics, sure food will make it to Manila, and may be shipped over to Tacloban and the other islands. But what about when it arrives? How will it get to the people that need it most? Many of these aid companies don't have adequate facilities there for distribution. And even those that do are having to contend with Armed Gangs set on stealing the supplies and reselling them to the most vulnerable people at extortionate rates. How will the aid reach these people, When? What I want to do is go there and organize logistics, convoys, deliveries, big and small, however, wherever it's needed, now. I'll focus on getting local folks with Trucks, cars, Jipnies, boats, what ever we can make work, and any other vehicles we can, load em up at the distribution points the relief agencies set up, and set out in convoys in the middle of the night to avoid the gangs and have the best chance of getting food to the people that need it. You may ask, how can I do this, or why would I want to even do it? Because for the past 8 years I worked in Iraq & Afghanistan supporting the US Military as govt contractor. My small company had the honor of supporting our troops with much of the same services that are needed now. With much of the same dangers, now I don't expect any IEDs blowing up our trucks or anything. But the threat of robbery, gang check points, disease from lack of basic infrastructure, are all very real. And what most people don't know who weren't there, is that Pilipinos were right there with us, in both of these wars, risking their lives right along side of us by the tens of thousands. Even after their govt refused to let any of them travel to Iraq, they were still sneaking in to work with us. We couldn't have done anything, I could not have done anything there without the help of the Hard working, sharp, reliable Pilipino people I had on my side. Now it's time I go and give something back. They risked their lives and gave their time to help us, will you help me go and give back? So in short, here's what I'm going to do; 1) Set up logistics services so aid resources don't get sit around in a bottle neck 2) Help people connect with their loved ones off shore by registering them on Google people search and emailing their family members. You have to understand that the biggest export of the Philippines are people, in ward remittances from citizens working abroad make up a ton of the economy. And imagine if you're a maid working in Saudi Arabia somewhere, and you can't contact your grandma who's watching your baby. Or you're a electrician in Qatar and you can't reach your wife who's working the lil souvenir shop. They need your money from the job, but you need to hear from them to even get through the day. The pain of not knowing will break the strongest of us. Please help me to prevent this as best we can. 3) Leverage my Thai general trading company's procurement network to quickly bring in what ever supplies that are currently needed and can't be brought in cheaply. 4) And if you guys get behind me on this and we reach our goal, I will set up a full time relief company to continue your good will down the line for the next time disaster strikes. So, please help me. I'm not saying don't give to other agencies, no, please by all means' we're just little guys. However if you give them $10, give us a dollar to help things get where they need to be and to connect family and loved ones.

• published: 14 Nov 2013
• views: 293