Last December 17, 2021, Typhoon Odette hit my hometown, Hilongos, Leyte. During that time, I was in Japan of course, just casually doing my business meetings online. I didn't mind the news. Of course, I heard that there is a supertyphoon coming. Of course, I heard that it will hit my town. But, typhoons visit our side of the Philippines very often that it's no longer surprising to me anymore. However, the next day came and it was all horror. I've seen videos of the damages on Facebook; the lost private and public properties, the ravaged livelihoods, and the broken electricity lines. I was dumbfoundedー it was by far the strongest typhoon that ever hit our town! Of course, we were hit by Typhoon Yolanda but it was not as strong on our end compared to the side of Tacloban City. This time, it was the other way around. Our town Hilongos had an estimated 1 billion cost of damages from Typhoon Odette.

The morning right after, I tried to contact my family. No replies. After 12 hours, still no reply. After 24 hours, no reply. My anxiety has definitely triggered. Why was everyone not replying? Did something happen to them? It was the longest 2 days of my life. I felt a huge surge of relief when after around 48 hours my boyfriend called me to inform me of their situation. My boyfriend is my childhood friend and my neighbor, and he was there when the typhoon hit our hometown. He still need to travel an hour to reach Baybay, City so that he can get mobile signal. And that was when I saw heartbreaking photos of our very own barangayー Bagumbayan, Hilongos, Leyte.

Houses destroyed.
Livelihood ravaged.
Forests cleared.
No Mobile network signal.
No electricity.
Public and Private properties damaged.

You know what? It really hits different when you see the people affected by a certain tragedy are your families, your relativesー people that you personally know. It hurt. A lot. All of Hilongos was left with nothing but shock and trauma. We were never hit with something as strong and devastating as this.

Photo credits to Joseph Gutierrez Ollave

Our town is not as popular as Cebu City, Siargao, Tagbilaran, Maasin City and the rest. The trucks of relief goods were just passing by us. We didn't receive any help from big charities. We were left to fend for ourselves. So last December 19, 2021, we in Project Batang Hilongosnon, in partnership with my business companyー The DnA Empire, and the Bagumbayan Sangguniang Kabataan, decided to launch the #OdettePH Bagumbayan Donation Drive, to provide a small-scale help to our barangayー Brgy. Bagumbayan, Hilongos, Leyte. However, when we went beyond the targeted ₱65,000.00 donations, we decided to extend help to other barangays as well.

With everyone's help, we were able to extend more help that what we have expected. We have nothing but gratitude to our donors, our volunteers, and all who have supported this noble cause. You all have helped our town stand back up from all of this.

Wave 1: 287 Relief Goods Packs for Bagumbayan, Hilongos

On time for Christmas Day when we only had ₱38,518.00, we executed our wave 1 starting from working with the Bagumbayan Barangay Council to provide relief goods packs to each of the 287 households in the barangay. Here's our Transparency Report for this distribution.

Wave 2: Roofing Materials to 39 Households in Bagumbayan, Hilongos

If the relief goods were to sustain the residents in the next days to pass because their livelihood were destroyed, the roofing materials were to help them rebuild their homes. Many in our barangay have houses totally and partially damaged by the typhoon. We were able to provide each of the 39 households 3-4 pcs of galvanized iron sheets and some umbrella nails. Huge thank you to our friends from Japan for donating a total of ₱42,400.00 for us to reach ₱87,928.00 total cash donations last January 5, 2022. Here's our Transparency Report for this distribution.

Wave 3: 98 Relief Goods Packs for San Agustin, Hilongos

As mentioned previously, we only needed ₱65,000.00 for Bagumbayan. So when we received donations beyond that, we decided to help another barangay above the mountains that got their coconut livelihood wiped out from the typhoonー Brgy. San Agustin. We were able to provide 98 Relief Food Packs to all 98 households in the barangay. Here's our Transparency Report for this distribution.

Wave 4: ₱17,000 Cash Donations to 7 Communities/Families

We thought that we could only afford 3 waves, but a surge of blessings suddenly came to us! Level Up International, a community of purpose-driven entrepreneurs, decided to donate ₱27,000.00 to us. We were able to add 2 more waves to our relief efforts. Since our team could no longer reach Bato, Leyte, we just coordinated with people from there who can execute their own relief efforts in their own community. So we handed ₱10,000.00 to a community in Bato, Leyte. Then, we decided to distribute cash assistance to 6 families from barangay Bagumbayan, Campina, and Himo-aw who have had their houses totally damaged from the typhoon since we could no longer execute roofing materials distributions in those areas.

Wave 5: 2nd Batch of 287 Relief Goods Packs for Bagumbayan, Hilongos

Overall, we had a remaining ₱10,000.00 in our funds for the #OdettePH operations at the end. The barangay officials of Bagumbayan decided to give relief goods for the 2nd time to the residents of the barangay because after all, the livelihood of the residents were not reestablished yet. Since the our remaining money is too little to start out to another barangay, we decided to just donate the remaining amount to Bagumbayan so that the officials can use it for the 2nd batch of their relief efforts in the barangay. Here's our Transparency Report for this distribution.

Daghang salamat! Overall, we were able to raise ₱114,928 for this noble cause. We have distributed a total of 672 relief goods packs and 156 roofing materials. We were able to release ₱17,000.00 cash assistance. Most importantly, we were able to help 431 families from 5 barangays of Hilongs and Bato, Leyte. Hilongosnons and Batohanons are very thankful to this help that they have received from all of you. Thank you very much for supporting this noble cause.

We are but small towns. You saw us, then helped us. Thank you!
May the spirit of bayanihan live through us Filipinos always.

Always at you service,