From the Philippines: "Despite so much tragedy, they maintain an optimism that only exists in this country".
PHOTO: Antonio Larrauri, brother of Natalia, a Filipino student at the University.
"What is happening these days in the Philippines is a tragedy. To get an idea, it's something like the movie The Impossible. The typhoon passed through the central region of the country known as Bisayas, there are entire cities destroyed where there is nothing left". With these words Daniel Coronel, student Ecuadorian at the University, describes what they are experiencing there after the passage of Typhoon Haiyan. Daniel is studying his IMP year at the University of Asia and the Pacific in Manila.
As soon as the first news of Haiyan's arrival was heard, Daniel, who arrived in the Philippines in June, reassured his family that the typhoon was not expected to pass through Manila. In his opinion, adequate measures were not taken. "Since Tuesday we started to know how the typhoon was going to behave and what should have been done was to evacuate those cities where it was known that it was going to pass but it was not done and look what happened," he laments.
When I asked Daniel, student , a 3rd year student of advertising and Public Relations, what struck him most about the disaster, he did not hesitate to answer that it was the optimism with which Filipinos face all situations. "Despite so much tragedy, they maintain an optimism that only exists in this country. No matter how many things have happened this year such as the earthquake, the scandal in the government or the last typhoon, the people still have the same desire to move forward." "And also the eagerness of partnership of all citizens to help their affected compatriots", he adds. He gives as an example the case of the university where he studies, where an operations center has been set up and where the students take advantage of the breaks to lend a hand: "since Sunday the 'reliefoperations' began, and in our university an entire hall was set up where the goods that are collected are organized; from water to shoes, here everything adds up".
Daniel encourages University of Navarra students to help out at financial aid to the Philippines. "There are many, many ways, from joining the intentions of this population to supporting the Filipino students who are raising funds at campus; or else through NGOs."
