TOUCH International medical team 1 arrives at the port of Ormoc in transit to to Tacloban and Hernani
December 2, 2013 – Shortly after the Advance Recce Team returned from the Philippines, TOUCH International was back on the ground with a 12 men medical team to serve victims of the Typhoon Haiyan. Known as Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, it is the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing at least 6,155 people in that country alone. Haiyan is also the strongest storm recorded at landfall, and unofficially the strongest typhoon ever recorded in terms of wind speed. An estimated 14 million people were affected, 1.1 million houses were damaged or destroyed and 4 million people displaced.
In partnership with Dr. Gloria Fabrigas from the Tacloban Mayor's office, Pastor Jun Villarta from Ormoc, Dennis Koh, a Singapore missionary based there as well as Pastor Noli Opiniano's Nordic Harvest Bible Community Church, TOUCH Medical Response Team 1 provided essential medical services through mobile medical units in some of the hardest-hit areas of Tacloban and Hernani. In all, the medical response team saw more than 600 patients in the few days they were there.
Dressing a badly infected wound in fast fading light inside the Tacloban Astrodome is a huge challenge
More than just providing medical aid to the people, the team took time whenever they could to pray for those suffering, and especially for those they knew medicine wouldn't help much. In times like this, how do you break the news to a mother that her beloved son is a special need child? Everyone who survived the disaster had his or her own story to tell – from heartbreaking personal losses to amazing thanksgiving. A hastily put up sign along a street read "Roofless, Homeless but Not Hopeless" – indeed the team were both humbled by the resilience of the Philippine people and the suffering they saw. It was just great to be able to touch their lives in whatever small little way they could.
Dr Timothy Tay attends to a child in Tacloban city
An injured man in Hernani awaits his turn to see the doctors
The medical team sets up the dispensary before the crowd streams in
The M/V Eva Jocelyn was tossed ashore like a rag doll in Tacloban
The medical team conducts check-ups on the children in the disaster-stricken regions
The crowds gather in pouring rain even before the team arrives
Instructions on medication had to be expressed patiently slow and clear
Thanks to the quick response of the local volunteers, patients were sheltered from the pouring rain
This old man was able to put on a smile through his pain
No school, no home and living in a evacuation centre, nevertheless these children in Tacloban always had something to be joyful about