This power point will briefly describe and explain why this is such a tragic natural disaster and will hopefully encourage you to donate some money for the victims. Here at Fortismere we are collecting money to send the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee). The Disasters Emergency Committee is made up of 14 member agencies which provide aid after a disaster in the world's poorer countries. The member agencies include: Actionaid, Oxfam, Age Concern International, The British Red Cross and Christian Aid, to name just a few. For more details please see the DEC website:

The Philippines is located in South East Asia Life expectancy here is 69 years

This is an area that was majorly affected – lots of the media footage is coming from here but we mustn’t forget that there are lots of small remote rural areas which will also have been very badly affected.

Typhoons are like hurricanes and cyclones – lots of wind and lots of rain. These clips help to explain what happens:

 Authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people before the typhoon arrived, but many evacuation centres - schools, churches and government buildings - proved unable to withstand the winds and storm surges.  Haiyan brought sustained winds of 235km/h (147mph), with gusts of 275 km/h (170 mph) and waves as high as 15m (45ft). In some places, as much as 400mm (15.75 inches) of rain fell.

People have been forced to scavenge for food People desperately seek through the wreckage of their homes in search of provisions and belongings

Transport and communications have been destroyed so it very difficult to get people in and out of the affected areas. It is also difficult to get help and aid to the people.

Over one million farmers in the Philippines have been impacted by Typhoon Haiyan according to the UN. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice have been destroyed. Coconut plantations which are a big earner of foreign currency were said to be "completely flattened". Fishing communities have also be severely affected with the storm destroying boats and gear. The farmers are also facing into the next planting season with much of their infrastructure such as irrigation equipment affected by the typhoon. The Philippines has been importing less rice over the past five years, but the storm will have dramatically changed that.

 At least 10,000 people are feared to have been killed by Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the central Philippines on Friday.  The UN says more than 11 million people are believed to have been affected by the storm and some 673,000 displaced.

These people are waiting here at Tacloban airport hoping for supplies of aid or hoping to leave

 In the UK, the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) group of 14 charities launched its own appeal on Tuesday 12 th Nov  DEC chairman Salah Saeed compared the destruction in the city of Tacloban to that seen after the devastating tsunami of  "There is currently no food, water or electricity. We can only imagine how much worse the situation will be for families living in towns and remote villages," he said  Food, water and shelter are most urgently needed.

 R6 will be coming to your VT sessions to collect any money that you would like to send to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan – alternatively you can give your contributions straight to Miss Holder  MANY THANKS Miss Holder and R6 Note to teachers – there are many clips on the BBC news page and the situation is updating continuously: n n