Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of the PHA Board of Directors, I am writing you to keep you abreast on the efforts of the Association to help rebuild the lives and communities of those displaced by Typhoon Yolanda in November, particularly our colleagues and friends and their families.
One of the fiercest typhoons, Yolanda, ripped the country on 08 November and left not only a trail of devastation but seemingly unimaginable heartaches and hardships for the people of Tacloban and in the Eastern Visayas region. This wrath of nature comes in less than a month's time when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake jolted Bohol and other parts in the Visayas and Mindanao on the morning of 15 October.
The PHA Board of Directors reached out to the members who have experienced and suffered the typhoon's wrath with some financial support as a start-up in these most challenging of times. We have donated clothing items to the communities in Tacloban and coursed other relief operations through the different PHA chapters in that region with the other chapters from Luzon extending financial support as well.
We all know that it will take three or four years, and hopefully not more than that, for the communities in that region to move forward. This can only happen not by just helping the people but with supporting the communities.
We help rebuild the communities and we help the people start anew with hope and confidence. This is what the PHA members in the affected areas believe in and so do we.
With this objective in mind, the PHA Board of Directors is coming up with fundraising projects and events to further financially assist our members and their communities. It is a long process and we believe that all of us, in our own way, have to be there for them and with them.
At 7:30 p.m. of 22 January 2014, the PHA will hold the "After the Storm" fundraising concert at the DAPA Hall of the Philippine Heart Center and this will feature the UP Concert Chorus, Noel Cabangon, Cocoy Laurel, Fortenors, other celebrity artists and our own PHA talents. It is in this regard that we ask your support. Should you wish to join us, tickets are available at the PHA Secretariat. You may call the PHA office at 470.5525 or 470.5528 or email
We know you have already helped but may we ask you to please consider this opportunity to extend additional support to the communities and the people.
Sincerely and with much appreciation,
Eugene B. Reyes, MD
President
