Written by Three Hills Capital
Dale Henkel and Richard Dyck, veteran volunteers with Samaritan's Purse, spent from December 12 to December 22 in Cebu, the Regional Centre of the Central Visayas, Philippines, building a "Sprung" structure to store typhoon relief supplies from the Calgary-based Christian disaster relief and development organization. Dale and Rick were joined by one other volunteer from Balzac and a technician from Sprung Structures of High River. Dale first got involved with Samaritan's Purse in 2004 having heard on Shine FM, of the opportunity to do short term mission work and Rick joined him in 2005. They have been on hand for various works ranging from water projects in El Salvador to building in Cambodia.
In the Philippines they worked with enthusiastic crews of Filipinos helping to put the 100' x 40' fabric structure in place as a warehouse out of which the emergency supplies are distributed around the country. The building is designed so that it can be disassembled and moved to another location when necessary. Temperatures reached 34 C and high humidity.
Samaritan's Purse has been on the ground in the Philippines since Typhoon Haiyan struck in November, killing more than 6,000 people and displacing millions more. They have been providing thousands of survivors with emergency food and water, along with medical care and emergency shelter. More than 70 Samaritan's Purse staff are working in the affected areas and they expect to continue their work there for many months to come."”š While there is evidence everyday of tremendous effort and success in the clean-up, Samaritan's Purse expects to be there for at least another year."”š Donations will continue to be needed. More information can be found at https://www.Samaritans Purse.ca
Three Hills resident Paul Hickok was among the first to be there to organize the work to be done."Ron Nickel, Three Hills photographer, was also in the Philippines at the same time as Dale and Rick, and had opportunity to take in the distribution of the Christmas Shoe Boxes, and record the devastation and triumphs.
Dale and Rick emphasize that "Samaritan's Purse is the focus of the accomplishments and that as volunteers they are but a small part of the overall success." Less than 10% of all funds raised by Samaritan's Purse goes to administration, and 90% is invested directly to the field and the needs there.
The next venture in which Dale and Rick expect to be involved will be a trip to Uruguay in March 2014 where they and several others from this area will be building a Senior's Care Centre.
For more information and to make a donation, visit the Samaritan's Purse website.
