USAID donates US$ 20-M worth of assistance for 'Yolanda' victims

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 12): USAID donates US$ 20-M worth of assistance for 'Yolanda' victims

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing US$ 20 million worth of humanitarian assistance victims of super typhoon "Yolanda".

According to the USAID, these include the provision of emergency shelter, food assistance, relief commodities, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) support.

Nutritional bars will also be sent to ease the hunger felt by victims of typhoon, according to USAID mission director to the Philippines, Gloria Steele in media reports.

She said these nutritional bars in cans to feed about 20,000 children under 5 and 15,000 adults for a week.

Two to three nutritional bars are enough to provide a single person the calories needed for a day, Steele further said.

USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), meanwhile, activated a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) and corresponding Washington, D.C.- based Response Management Team (RMT).

USAID's DART team arrived in Leyte last Monday to survey regions hardest hit by the super typhoon and reported that 90 percent of houses in some areas have been significantly damaged or destroyed.

The U.S. Government has made an initial US$ 100,000 available last Satuday (Nov. 9) following a formal request for international assistance by Philippine Government.

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