Mississauga Couple Heads to the Philippines

A Mississauga, Ontario couple, Harry and Annie Bergshoeff, are flying out of Toronto airport today. Their destination is the typhoon-ravaged country of the Philippines, where they will coordinate details of World Renew’s disaster response efforts.

The Bergshoeffs are volunteer International Relief Managers with World Renew. In this role, they spend months at a time serving at international locations and assisting with the coordination, delivery, and evaluation of disaster response activities. Last year, for example, they spent four months in Kenya helping people recover from severe drought. After that they worked with World Renew’s local partner in Zambia on a Food Security program, and assisted them with their reporting.

After Typhoon Haiyan devastated many regions of the Philippines, World Renew quickly began to coordinate a response with its long-time partner, the Christian Reformed Church of the Philippines (CRCP). Before the storm even made landfall, CRCP’s trained disaster response teams mobilized to assess needs, purchase supplies, and begin distribution of emergency food and water.

As the true scope and scale of the damage became known, however, World Renew decided to support the CRCP’s efforts by sending in a team to assist with scaling up the efforts.

“We received a call from World Renew asking if we would be able to leave as quickly as possible to head up their initial response to Haiyan,” said Annie Bergshoeff. “We will be located in Palo, just south of Tacloban city, one of the hardest hit areas by the typhoon.”

While in the Philippines, the Bergshoeffs will be tasked with finding suitable office space, hiring some key staff, and putting the details in place to offer essential non-food items (such as hygiene kits and temporary shelter), trauma counseling as well as surveying needs for long-term recovery and rehabilitation.

In addition, they will continue to coordinate efforts with the Integral Alliance – a global coalition of 19 Christian relief and development agencies who work together to present a more effective response to disaster and poverty worldwide. They will also take part in United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) cluster meetings for Food Security and Nutrition and Shelter. These meetings help disaster response organizations coordinate their work and avoid overlap to ensure that more people receive the assistance they need.

“We covet your prayers,” said Harry. “Not only for the size and uncertainty of the task, but also for us as we deal with the trauma of what we will be exposed to. It will be a daunting assignment for us.”

Annie expects to be in the Philippines until mid-January. Harry will likely stay until the end of February so that he can train and orient the next group of World Renew International Relief Managers.

For more information about World Renew's response to Typhoon Haiyan, click here.