This past week started a little slower than our normal, on Monday we stayed at the apartment somewhat later than our normal 7am (or earlier) arrival time at the Area Offices, so that made Monday a much easier overall work day. The young lady we had been working with in Public Affairs for nearly the past nine months, was leaving to pursuit other activities in her life on Monday (was her last day on the job), so for lunch we (all of the old Public affairs Team) gathered and celebrated her wonderful service and give here best wishes for the future. She plans on attending University in Turkey, starting early next year and furthering her education.
Later on Monday (late afternoon near closing time around 5pm), a Philippines TV personality (who is a member as well) stopped by Public Affairs, for some picture taking with the Area Office Measles Campaign Team which has been promoting and supporting this National Mass Immunization Campaign. His merely willingness to help, is a good sign to the general public – that we embrace, support, and desire that each child to be vaccinated. Now that UNICEP (the major media funder) has completed their paid TV promotion campaign, we are thinking that with a little additional effort - we can get some nice positive TV time and other media exposure, for the Church as one of the other major sponsors and partners of the effort.
On Wednesday morning, bright and early (just before 6am) we left our apartment for the more than one hour trip (across town) to DOH – to greet the long awaited Vaccine Carriers on two 40 foot trucks (full of boxes), having been a very long time in delivery, by being suck in two other foreign ports, on the ship in the harbor, or on the Manila port awaiting unloading, or in Federal Customs – attempting to get our final release for delivery. Trying to give a charitable donation from one National Agency to another National Government Agency just wouldn’t seem to be so much of a challenge but it is! The vaccine carriers having finally arrived at DOH (on the trucks) and so we could label them with LDS Charities stickers, before turning them over to DOH, for their distribution. A team of near to fifty (or more at the end) of “Mormon Helping Hands” volunteers were present to perform this task. As the project oversight team, with one of our Senior Service Missionary Couples’, the Soleta’s, of course, we were there again at DOH Headquarters, in near to Downtown Manila, and had to traverse the more than an hour’s drive each way, again. Our task was to deliver the supplies (the LDS Charities stickers, knives & scissors to open boxes, & tape/dispensers to reseal the boxes) and assure the task was successfully completed before any officially handing over this donation to DOH. After about 3 hours of work, we broke for water and some food (for lunch) and then continued until about 2pm, having labelled 1,100 boxes of 4,400 carriers on more than 60 skits - quite a sight - seeing a parking lot full of skits (20 boxes/4 carriers per box on each skit) of our donated materials (of the measles vaccine carriers) to further the National Measles/Polio Campaign. These boxes came on two 40 foot long trucks, with one (a third) truck still having not arrived with clearance from Manila Port. On Thursday, morning without us the last 150 boxes (4 carriers/per box) were to be labelled by another crew, we were NOT able to join this group, since we had conflicting scheduling with other LDS Charities meetings. Overall the Measles/Polio Campaign is doing very well, about 22% the first week, and 20% the second week of the near to 13 million children targeted to be vaccinated.
On Thursday we had visitors from another small village, come into the office to assess their consideration for a Clean Water Project. This village is made of very, very poor people who live on lands they do not own, but which landowners in exchange for farming work allow them to be there. This project is very small in terms of funding, but stretches them to meet the smallest of contributions. Later in the day, as a part of the Area Emergency Plan Project, we attended a meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce, on emergency event planning for corporate partners. Informative but not entirely on target for what we need and/or looking for.
We were preparing to co-host the weeks’ events, of a U.S. Humanitarian Department Photo (TV) Crew that have come here - in the Philippines, but because of very, very heavy rains and flooding throughout much of Manila (& elsewhere throughout the Philippines) this event was cancelled. In fact, the Area Offices were closed most of Friday, because of the challenges of getting into the offices with traffic shutdowns. As a result our workday was shortened and we had a long weekend to recovery from everything.
After reading about our week, it started slow but certainly the week picked up speed and momentum as the week progressed. All I can say is another great week of learning and doing, and hopefully performing better at all of many new tasks in LDS Charities.
Our other senior couple overseeing wheelchairs was out of the office most of the week with field assignments, and our former roommates of the staff for Perpetual Education Fund have moved to a new location elsewhere in the building, so it was eerie quiet around the office, if we were not hosting or having other guest visiting, there would NOT be any noise at all. Any noise if there is any comes from just the typing of reports, projects, and/or the copying and shredding of documents. Our telephone rings far less here in LDS Charities than it did in Public Affairs, until we build a staff of senior missionary volunteers, most of the efforts here in Luzon are started and completed by us. And we are still very much learning what it is that composed a “good project” for leadership support and approval.
Love you all, we appreciate your continued support, may the Lord each of us.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Stickers
Today we joined the Tondo
stake in putting stickers on 4400 vaccine carriers. We did it in the parking
lot of the Dept of Health (DoH). Had about 100 volunteers. Dad was
amazing! Great group to work with. Anyway I had been dreading this
project, for a month and it wasn't too bad.
We added stickers to the carriers that said LDS Charities. It was part of our new 'be more visible' plan. A great marriage of Public Affairs and humanitarian aid. We have a film crew coming to the DoH from the US on Friday. Some people from Salt Lake. Yeah, it should be fun.
I'll send an update afterwards.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Dear Family & Friends,
We just experienced another interesting and informative week as we continue to learn about our new assignment in LDS Charities. I have been given a specific assignment to develop an Area Disaster Readiness Plan - including a voice communications system for both local and wide area coverage issues. As nearly all of you may know, that was exactly what I did professionally for more than 37 years, before coming to the Philippines and now I am doing this same thing for FREE. One of the other Senior, Service Missionary Couples - who serve with us and is a tremendous source of information and good points of contact and I visited REACT Philippines, Inc. – a non-profit organization of volunteers who offer their personal communications devices in times of emergencies and natural disasters. They have more than 6,000 members countrywide and we (the Church) are researching joining their organizations to compliment and utilize their resources in times of challenge. History in the Philippines is that during these times of disaster, the communications systems are NOT hardened and they are the first things lost and/or disabled. Certainly that was the case during Yolanda and nearly every other major disaster related events since we have been here. During this visit with REACT, we got to better understanding about them and began the process of developing a sharing partnership/relationship which may best serve and better both organizations.
Another event was we hosted the Mayor of Sagada, a small community in mid-Luzon, where we had started a few years ago a Clean Water Project, but for a whole host of roadblocks and other issues was put on hold. Our intent of visiting together in our offices was to completely outline (all of the details) to the Mayor, of what it would take to “re-start” this project - so that the people of his community could enjoy clean water. He is in his last term as mayor, having served for more than 10 years and really wants this project to be completed – and to become a part of his legacy of service. I believe our meeting was very successful, since the Mayor, called the next day, and said he had re-enforced the agreements from the several landowners, to use their right-a-ways for the piles to distribute the clean water, and that his budget could pay the re-survey amounts needed to re-assess the entire project. After that survey is completed, fully funded, we will see if there is still enough money in the budget to complete our efforts. Helping people the right way is challenging at best!
Lastly we closed out the week by going to the National Department of Health, visiting regarding furtherance of the National Measles/Polio Campaign – which is already underway (for roughly immunize 13M children) since the beginning of September. Our focus was to deliver our committed epinephrine pens, that are need to counteract any negative reactions the children may have from the measles vaccinations, some 6,000 doses. The Under-Secretary over this campaign, kindly welcomed us, received our donations, and granted us picture taking of this event. This trip of less than 30 kilometers each way took us more than five hours complete, or nearly all of the afternoon and part of the evening. Merely saying the highway traffic in Manila is heavy and very unpredictable, is like saying life is always easy. Words just can’t begin to describe the chaos they call traffic, here. If it’s not a motorcycle, or tricycle (motorized or peddle type), or a Jeepney, or a taxi, or a VU, or a bus, or a truck, or another car – something is always in the road causing roadblocks and/or long delays. Traffic lights and signs are only suggestions and generally ignored. Oh how I love driving in the Philippines – NOT! After the traffic on Friday - I just could bear it another day and stayed around the apartment (all day) on Saturday. They have been installing new traffic lights, where they used to be U-turns on the main highway (C-5) into our apartment complex and traffic lights are NOT anything like you would think they should be. Some times of the day the road may be one-way and other times two-way, sometimes forced right or left turns sometimes not, all depending on the law enforcement and mood of the police. Remember in the Philippines it isn’t wrong unless the police choose to enforce it, and are there to do so!
Love you all, we appreciate your continued support, may the Lord each of us.
With Love the Morello’s
We just experienced another interesting and informative week as we continue to learn about our new assignment in LDS Charities. I have been given a specific assignment to develop an Area Disaster Readiness Plan - including a voice communications system for both local and wide area coverage issues. As nearly all of you may know, that was exactly what I did professionally for more than 37 years, before coming to the Philippines and now I am doing this same thing for FREE. One of the other Senior, Service Missionary Couples - who serve with us and is a tremendous source of information and good points of contact and I visited REACT Philippines, Inc. – a non-profit organization of volunteers who offer their personal communications devices in times of emergencies and natural disasters. They have more than 6,000 members countrywide and we (the Church) are researching joining their organizations to compliment and utilize their resources in times of challenge. History in the Philippines is that during these times of disaster, the communications systems are NOT hardened and they are the first things lost and/or disabled. Certainly that was the case during Yolanda and nearly every other major disaster related events since we have been here. During this visit with REACT, we got to better understanding about them and began the process of developing a sharing partnership/relationship which may best serve and better both organizations.
Another event was we hosted the Mayor of Sagada, a small community in mid-Luzon, where we had started a few years ago a Clean Water Project, but for a whole host of roadblocks and other issues was put on hold. Our intent of visiting together in our offices was to completely outline (all of the details) to the Mayor, of what it would take to “re-start” this project - so that the people of his community could enjoy clean water. He is in his last term as mayor, having served for more than 10 years and really wants this project to be completed – and to become a part of his legacy of service. I believe our meeting was very successful, since the Mayor, called the next day, and said he had re-enforced the agreements from the several landowners, to use their right-a-ways for the piles to distribute the clean water, and that his budget could pay the re-survey amounts needed to re-assess the entire project. After that survey is completed, fully funded, we will see if there is still enough money in the budget to complete our efforts. Helping people the right way is challenging at best!
Lastly we closed out the week by going to the National Department of Health, visiting regarding furtherance of the National Measles/Polio Campaign – which is already underway (for roughly immunize 13M children) since the beginning of September. Our focus was to deliver our committed epinephrine pens, that are need to counteract any negative reactions the children may have from the measles vaccinations, some 6,000 doses. The Under-Secretary over this campaign, kindly welcomed us, received our donations, and granted us picture taking of this event. This trip of less than 30 kilometers each way took us more than five hours complete, or nearly all of the afternoon and part of the evening. Merely saying the highway traffic in Manila is heavy and very unpredictable, is like saying life is always easy. Words just can’t begin to describe the chaos they call traffic, here. If it’s not a motorcycle, or tricycle (motorized or peddle type), or a Jeepney, or a taxi, or a VU, or a bus, or a truck, or another car – something is always in the road causing roadblocks and/or long delays. Traffic lights and signs are only suggestions and generally ignored. Oh how I love driving in the Philippines – NOT! After the traffic on Friday - I just could bear it another day and stayed around the apartment (all day) on Saturday. They have been installing new traffic lights, where they used to be U-turns on the main highway (C-5) into our apartment complex and traffic lights are NOT anything like you would think they should be. Some times of the day the road may be one-way and other times two-way, sometimes forced right or left turns sometimes not, all depending on the law enforcement and mood of the police. Remember in the Philippines it isn’t wrong unless the police choose to enforce it, and are there to do so!
Love you all, we appreciate your continued support, may the Lord each of us.
With Love the Morello’s
Benson Institute Food Production Project
One of the several LDS Charities programs we are attempting to START here in the Philippines is the Benson Institute Food Production Project among Elementary School children and their Families. To improve and round-out their daily nutrition in each of these families. Brother, Sister, Mother, Father & Grandparents too - all involved & having FUN doing it !!! We have called a senior, service missionary couple the Gorrieta's, from Cavite to mentor, oversee and manage this program, as it develops. As a START we have partnered with an existing NGO, IIRR to learn more and see HOW THEY ARE DOING IT? These projects would at first be only around the Greater Manila Area and be either Urban (See pictures) or Rural versions of home gardens. You grow what you will eat, it is nice you can grow food nearly all year long, year round. Using proper, natural fertilizers, with little negative impact on the environment and taking proper care of your growing soil, all makes doing this totally worthwhile. Wish us well as we start! The Morello's
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Dear Family & Friends,
Another week has come and gone, now it’s the first of September, the rainy season has fully arrived here in the Philippines and almost daily there are either heavy thunderstorms and/or lots of rain. This year, thus far, there has NOT been any widespread flooding, mainly because the storms only last for a few minutes or hours at the most, but should it rain (like it does intermittently) for any time at all, we should expect there will be some if not a lot of flooding. Virtually there is nowhere for all the water to go, but flood. We park at our apartment unit on the fifth basement level (below the ground), and we have been parking for nearly five months in a never ending water puddle. Since this is the bottom basement, apparently this water is seeping up from below through the concrete slab from below our parking slot and pooling under our car. It is so very nice to daily walk through water puddles to park or leave the apartment. Our ongoing frustration with this situation is that apparently they (the apartment administration people) cannot move us to another spot, although we pass many hundreds of open one’s in going down (to the fifth basement level) to our parking spot or they cannot seem to fix the problem. Day after day we walk through the water puddles to drive into the mess they call Manila traffic to go somewhere or to come to the Area Offices. We are continually reminded “It’s more fun to be in the Philippines.” [That’s the media promotion slogan for travel to the Philippines]
Now onto some more pleasant notes, we started the National Mass Immunization Campaign for children zero-to-five years old for Measles and Polio. The kick-off, this past Monday morning, was hosted by the National Department of Health, at their headquarters. The President of the country, President Aquino, attended, greeted, spoke, and watched a few selected (brave) children being immunized. Our Area President, Elder Ian Ardern, also attended, greeted with the President, the DOH Directors, & other co-sponsors the large gathering of people, the local/national press, and other visitors from the nearby community at this event. See our FACEBOOK for pictures. While some of the selected first children for this national campaign (13 million is total to be immunized) were being immunized, our Church (through LDS charities – our group – us), as one of the co-sponsors funded the purchase of a small bear/dog like stuffed toys which was given to the children to comfort them after they were each shot. The children loved the toys, which they hugged a lot. This stuffed toy which we had purchased some 20 thousand of, is to be distributed (to the children) at our meetinghouse (Chapels) which we offered for DOH’s use and are going to be used for this event (during this campaign will be going on all of the month of September) This is truly a national project which is going on all around and throughout all the Philippines. Just one of the many projects we oversee and manage as we serve here, LDS Charities.
Still seeking out other new projects to sponsor, but as I stated before, we have pre-measured, pre-packaged solutions and our solutions don’t always fit the circumstances. Tailoring our projects to our “real life” situations is a skill we are just beginning to understand and/or to learn. Keeping everything on-budget and on-time is another talent we are refining as we service in this new capacity. Our co-senior missionary couple over wheelchairs has being challenged to do far more with much less, and often the ends don’t meet. Only 67% of the year has passed in terms of budget allotments, but in many cases we have spent more than the year’s total amounts. Some of the categories in our budgets our limited by Salt Lake guidelines and often they are NOT just enough. “Doing more with Less” - seems like I’m back in Corporate America, I think I must have heard that nearly every day - I was working at Motorola. No matter the situation we all seem to want to do more and spend less, challenging when you see people doing so much with so very, very little.
Love the challenges, learning more and more each day, and every day there is something new to do and handle. We love the people of the Philippines; they are so very kind and willing to share and help one another. Good Christian people doing their best in many challenging and poor living situations. May the Lord bless them bless each of you, and may His work continue to Move Forward.
Love Pauli & Mike Morello
Another week has come and gone, now it’s the first of September, the rainy season has fully arrived here in the Philippines and almost daily there are either heavy thunderstorms and/or lots of rain. This year, thus far, there has NOT been any widespread flooding, mainly because the storms only last for a few minutes or hours at the most, but should it rain (like it does intermittently) for any time at all, we should expect there will be some if not a lot of flooding. Virtually there is nowhere for all the water to go, but flood. We park at our apartment unit on the fifth basement level (below the ground), and we have been parking for nearly five months in a never ending water puddle. Since this is the bottom basement, apparently this water is seeping up from below through the concrete slab from below our parking slot and pooling under our car. It is so very nice to daily walk through water puddles to park or leave the apartment. Our ongoing frustration with this situation is that apparently they (the apartment administration people) cannot move us to another spot, although we pass many hundreds of open one’s in going down (to the fifth basement level) to our parking spot or they cannot seem to fix the problem. Day after day we walk through the water puddles to drive into the mess they call Manila traffic to go somewhere or to come to the Area Offices. We are continually reminded “It’s more fun to be in the Philippines.” [That’s the media promotion slogan for travel to the Philippines]
Now onto some more pleasant notes, we started the National Mass Immunization Campaign for children zero-to-five years old for Measles and Polio. The kick-off, this past Monday morning, was hosted by the National Department of Health, at their headquarters. The President of the country, President Aquino, attended, greeted, spoke, and watched a few selected (brave) children being immunized. Our Area President, Elder Ian Ardern, also attended, greeted with the President, the DOH Directors, & other co-sponsors the large gathering of people, the local/national press, and other visitors from the nearby community at this event. See our FACEBOOK for pictures. While some of the selected first children for this national campaign (13 million is total to be immunized) were being immunized, our Church (through LDS charities – our group – us), as one of the co-sponsors funded the purchase of a small bear/dog like stuffed toys which was given to the children to comfort them after they were each shot. The children loved the toys, which they hugged a lot. This stuffed toy which we had purchased some 20 thousand of, is to be distributed (to the children) at our meetinghouse (Chapels) which we offered for DOH’s use and are going to be used for this event (during this campaign will be going on all of the month of September) This is truly a national project which is going on all around and throughout all the Philippines. Just one of the many projects we oversee and manage as we serve here, LDS Charities.
Still seeking out other new projects to sponsor, but as I stated before, we have pre-measured, pre-packaged solutions and our solutions don’t always fit the circumstances. Tailoring our projects to our “real life” situations is a skill we are just beginning to understand and/or to learn. Keeping everything on-budget and on-time is another talent we are refining as we service in this new capacity. Our co-senior missionary couple over wheelchairs has being challenged to do far more with much less, and often the ends don’t meet. Only 67% of the year has passed in terms of budget allotments, but in many cases we have spent more than the year’s total amounts. Some of the categories in our budgets our limited by Salt Lake guidelines and often they are NOT just enough. “Doing more with Less” - seems like I’m back in Corporate America, I think I must have heard that nearly every day - I was working at Motorola. No matter the situation we all seem to want to do more and spend less, challenging when you see people doing so much with so very, very little.
Love the challenges, learning more and more each day, and every day there is something new to do and handle. We love the people of the Philippines; they are so very kind and willing to share and help one another. Good Christian people doing their best in many challenging and poor living situations. May the Lord bless them bless each of you, and may His work continue to Move Forward.
Love Pauli & Mike Morello
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