Helping Out from Afar

To Members of the Ford School and the UM Community:

The humanitarian crisis in the Philippines is very real, and the need for assistance is immense. At the beginning of the week, nearly half a million people were estimated to have been displaced from their homes by Typhoon Ketsana, named Ondoy in the Philippines. That's as many people as live in all of Kansas City, Missouri. Conditions remain challenging. Standing water has yet to drain off in some areas, and a thick, viscous layer of mud covers the street in other areas. There is reportedly one toilet for the 3,000 people staying at the Cainta evacuation center, which is located in San Andres, a low-income neighborhood in a municipality just to the east of metro Manila. The threat of infectious disease remains high.

Thankfully, if you'd like to make a charitable contribution to the relief effort, there are plenty of great options.

Google has set up a page with detailed information on specific people in need of rescue and help as well as links to charitable organizations who are leading the relief effort, including the Philippine National Red Cross, Kapuso Foundation, and ABS-CBN Foundation. Most of the links are to online interfaces that allow you to donate via credit card or PayPal. Remember to pay attention to whether your contribution is denominated in Philippines Pesos (PHP) or US Dollars (USD)!

Michigan's Center for Southeast Asian Studies has also set up a very informative page with links.

Other options include Save the Children and the Bayani Movement, both of which have created Web pages dedicated to Ondoy-related relief efforts.

Please let us know in the comments if you have additional suggestions, and thanks for considering a donation.

Our thoughts also go out today to the victims of the tsumani that just struck Samoa.

Yours truly,

The IEDP Board

P.S. Today the exchange rate is 1USD = 47.33PHP.

The USD is strong relative to the PHP. According to the the Economist's Big Mac index last July, a Big Mac in the Philippines cost about 99PHP, or 2.05USD. Someone buying the same tasty delicacy in the U.S. would have paid 3.57USD. That implies that the PHP was undervalued relative to the USD in July. The 99PHP that you could have used to buy a whole Big Mac in the Philippines would have gotten you a little more than half a burger in U.S. Another way to think about the same thing: With the same three-and-a-half dollars that you could have used to buy a single Big Mac in the U.S., you could have bought almost two Big Macs in the Philippines.