A Helping Hand for the Philippines

By Ariel Neidermeier

Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines right around the time I started blogging for AsAmNews. I watched the tragedy unfold on the news like everyone else, and I blogged about it too. Months went by and the news coverage of the devastation gradually dissipated.  Today, when I tell people I’m going to the Philippines to volunteer with Typhoon Haiyan relief efforts, they often ask, “When did that happen again?”

Super Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) made landfall in the Philippines on November 8, 2013 and devastated the central islands of the country. Haiyan is the deadliest storm to make landfall in recorded history. Authorities have confirmed that 6,201 people were killed by the storm, 4 million people have been left homeless (that’s twice as many as those left homeless by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004) and an overall 16 million people have been affected.

I am half Filipino, half Caucasian and incredibly proud of my mixed heritage. When I was growing up this was not always the case. I spent my childhood in a mostly white suburb of San Francisco, Calif. My friends were white so I wanted to be white. My Mother, who immigrated from the Philippines at age nine, never taught me Tagalog so I had no language with which to endorse my Filipino identity. I had no Asian or fellow mixed-race friends to commiserate with; and, so I grew up feeling more white than Filipino.

Today, I feel differently. There are several possible reasons for this: I can now check off more than one box when I describe my race. The interracial population is growing and I have more friends who are mixed. Finally, I am older and possibly wiser and more comfortable with myself. I believe growing up with a mixed Filipino and Caucasian heritage is easier in California than most areas of the country. Filipino Americans are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group with 1.5 million Filipino Americans residing in the state of California. Sixteen percent of this group is multiracial like me.

That said, I still grew up answering the question “What are you?” from puzzled individuals of all races in reference to my racially-ambiguous, mixed appearance. This question is not necessarily offensive but it does make you wonder what sets apart the person who asks it from the person who doesn’t, in terms of knowledge of race and multi-ethnicity. Marcia Dawkins, an author and communication specialist, wrote about the conundrum the question poses in a Huffington Post article last summer: “Too often, the “what are you, exactly?” question prevents us all from asking ourselves and others the more important “who are you?” and “who am I?” questions.”

I suppose part of the reason I’ve decided to take this trip is to answer the latter questions more fully. Some background—I’ve been to the Philippines before but never to a disaster zone. I’ll be working with an organization called All Hands Volunteers to safely deconstruct broken homes, clear debris and begin the rebuilding efforts in communities on the island of Leyte in the Central Philippines. You can donate to All Hands Volunteers and learn more about their efforts by visiting my fundraising page. You can keep track of my volunteer experience and learn about the state of the Philippines post-Haiyan by reading my blog here at AsAmNews.com.

I’ll update it as regularly as possible with information about my relief efforts and stories from the Filipinos and volunteers I meet on this journey. If you have questions, please comment below. Thanks for tuning in.

Long live the Philippines. ~ Ariel