Day 15 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Flood Relief
The $20,110 of donations we have received in the last 7 days have now become $40,110 due to Peter McMullin’s generous matching grant. Our huge thanks go to Peter and to everyone else who helped us to achieve this with their donations.
UNICEF reports that 45 people died in the floods and that they affected 25,709 households and destroyed 4,546 houses across East Timor. In Dili alone, 8,885 people were displaced and 1,434 children are living in temporary shelters.
When we first spoke to Sabeh about working together to deliver food and supplies, we thought we’d be able to contribute about $10,000. But in the 15 days since Simon’s first message about what had happened in East Timor, people’s generosity has been extraordinary and we’ve received $162,863. Because we are on the ground, small and nimble and found a great partner in Sabeh, we’ve been able to spend $99,600 to date, to buy and deliver food and supplies quickly to more than 9,000 people.
We have approximately $60,000 still to use to help. We are reviewing daily how best to spend this. When we receive requests like those below, we know that our donor funds are being used well helping people to be warm, clothed and fed.
Today Dr Andre from Sabeh received a desperate call from students who have been living in makeshift tents with no assistance at all since their boarding house in Dili was flooded. We were able to have food and supplies delivered to them this afternoon.
Yesterday Sabeh carried out another massive delivery of food and supplies bought by Spend it Well’s donors to the 4 villages in Laclo (outside Dili in Manatuto District).
Most of the need we are now seeing and trying to help with is outside Dili. It’s hard to get supplies to people in the districts because of Covid border restrictions and road collapses, but we are finding ways to make it happen. We’re now sourcing and preparing for another big delivery for more than 500 families in Same, Baucau and Metinaro which are all outside Dili.
