ABOUT THE CITIZENS DISASTER RESPONSE CENTER

The administrator of the funds of this project is the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center (CDRC), a 25-year old non-government organization that pioneered and continues to promote community-based disaster management in the Philippines. Organized in 1984, CDRC has touched the lives of more than three million of the most affected, least served and most vulnerable victims of disasters through preparedness and mitigation, emergency relief, and rehabilitation programs. CDRC operates nationwide through a network of regional centers and through people’s organizations. It has worked with the United Nations and has received assistance from foreign governments and various international charity organizations. CDRC also coordinates with the National Disaster Coordinating Council, consists of various government and non-government organizations,  to ensure that help is efficiently and effectively distributed to affected communities and efforts of the various organizations are not  duplicated in these communities. A full report will be made by CDRC (http://www.cdrc-phil.com ) on the relief program that will be assisted by the net proceeds of the concert.

WHY WE ARE FUNDRAISING

Typhoons Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma) which hit the Philippines on Sept. 26 and Oct. 3, respectively, devastated houses, schools, villages and parts of towns and cities in the Philippines and brought untold suffering to the Filipino people in those areas. The death toll from the two storms reached more than 700 and the number of affected people is now 7 million, many of them have lost their homes, belongings and livelihoods. Another typhoon hit the country in late October and has further worsened the already miserable existing condition of the victims, thousands of whom are still in the rehabilitation centers.


Souvenir program

 

This unheard-of tragedy in the Philippines has brought about sympathy and generosity of countless people from all over the world to help the typhoon victims, many of them governments, charities, private individuals and overseas Filipinos, including those in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario. Our kababayans, fellow Filipinos, Canadians and other communities have also donated goods and money for the victims. Citizens Disaster Response Center, informed the concert organizing committee that they are still doing relief work in some areas while starting rehabilitation initiatives in others. Based on the figures given, they are are targetting about 16,000 families and need about 25 million pesos to respond to the needs of 16,000 families, representing a fraction of the disaster affected communities.

Unity Concert Organizing Committee Statement

The Unity Concert 2009: Rebuilding People’s Lives is a product of the great compassion, desire to help, generosity of our sponsors coupled with the community building capacity of various individuals and  community organizations in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  It is this outpouring of solidarity and the generous spirit of community response to the urgent task of helping rebuild the lives of those hard hit by Typhoons Ketsana and Parma in the Philippines that we are gathered here today.

The Unity Concert is a testament to the spontaneous response of various community organizations and concerned Filipino-Canadians who have joined hands in hosting a musical extravaganza. It is also a gift from the heart as the clarion call for volunteers was gladly answered by a special group of talented and professional  artists and performers who  are concerned about the millions of Filipinos who are suffering from the worst onslaught of natural and man-made calamities.

Unity Concert 2009: Rebuilding People’s Lives is a confirmation to the successful effort of various community organizations to gather groups willing to work together in a collaborative project that would directly benefit the typhoon victims of the Philippines. More