On Monday, November 18th, I had the opportunity to attend an Early Recovery Cluster meeting of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. These cluster meetings are numerous and time consuming but helpful to aid agencies because they allow us to hear the expectations that have been set by the national government and learn how other organizations are responding. In this way various agencies can work together, coordinate our efforts, and ensure that we don’t overlap.

On Monday, November 18th, I had the opportunity to attend an Early Recovery Cluster meeting of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. These cluster meetings are numerous and time consuming but helpful to aid agencies because they allow us to hear the expectations that have been set by the national government and  learn how other organizations are responding. In this way various agencies can work together, coordinate our efforts, and ensure that we don’t overlap.

I also had a meeting with the Integral Alliance.  Integral is a global alliance of 19 Christian relief and development agencies – including World Renew – that work together to present an effective response to disasters and poverty worldwide. At today’s meeting, we did our own mapping exercise and found that we will be working in some proximity to each other on the island of Leyte. We are now talking about sharing some office space to keep our administrative costs down. The Integral Alliance also benefits World Renew by connecting churches and agencies who have funds with agencies that are responding. World Renew has already been blessed by this alliance with commitments of $70,000 for our Haiyan response.

After these larger meetings, Pastor Adel and I discussed the logistics of World Renew and CRCP’s response – specifically how to get the first emergency items down there. Shipping lines, small planes, 10 ton trucks, 10-wheeler trucks, small Cessna for the volunteers to get in, etc. As security can be an issue, we also met with a Colonel of an Army Reserve Rescue and Relief Team who are going to escort us on the long land trip. With approval from them we should get priority in getting our goods across the 45 minute ferry ride from Sorsogon over to northern Samar.

While these meetings are very important, I am eager  to get my feet on the ground in the affected areas to see the damage and ensure a quality response. I am flying down to Iloilo on Tuesday, November 19th, and will visit the island of Panay, then Leyte and Samar.

Please continue to keep this response in your prayers!

In Christ,

Grace Wiebe

Senior Disaster Response Manager
World Renew Disaster Response