Within days of hearing of the disaster in the Philippines members of Girlguiding IW quickly organised a raffle and had a ‘large orange bucket’ campaign to raise money.
At the leaders County Training Day £100 was raised in a few hours and as more members became aware of the disaster other schemes were put in place.
One Guide unit decided to collect sheets, blankets and children’s clothes to add to the collection point at St. Mary’s Hospital, Newport where a number of staff are from the Philippines.
With the God-mother of one of the local Rainbows being a Filipino and with the Rainbow hearing first hand of the suffering of friends and relatives in the Philippines the Rainbows from Wootton decided to donate their weekly subscriptions to the disaster fund. At Bembridge the Brownies gave half of money made at their sale to the Disaster Fund with the other half going to a charity.
Girlguiding members at Ryde School (Junior School) joined in with their school’s effort of collecting small change and working with Pooten Forwarding International together with Red Funnel which arranged for boxes of goods to be shipped to the Philippines disaster area from the Isle of Wight free of charge. Goods included household items, tinned food, clothes and shoes and thick plastic tarpaulins.
With 10 million members worldwide Girlguiding quickly recognises when there is a country in need of help as direct links are made via the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. (WAGGGS).
In the Philippines there are over 1 million members of the Girl Scouts with units on most of the most populated 7000+ islands.