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You may have heard about Typhoon Ruby (also known as Typhoon Hagupit), a typhoon that had the potential to bring about damages of a similar scale to the infamous Typhoon Haiyan, which affected more than 10 million people in November 2013. Fortunately, Typhoon Ruby is not to be compared to Haiyan but there are still a lot of people who have lost their homes and livelihood, and to them, this is as severe as it can get. The typhoon has now left the country but so did the news coverage.

Since Typhoon Hagupit made landfall in the Philippines earlier this month, the Philippine Red Cross has been busy providing emergency relief and assessing damage in the hard-hit area of Samar Island.

The Red Cross has set up a basic health care unit in Dolores, Eastern Samar Province to provide services until health care facilities in the area can resume normal activities, with technical support for this clinic being provided by the Canadian Red Cross. 

One year has passed since Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines, on November 8, 2013, affecting more than 16 million people.

Sebastien Jouffroy is a humanitarian worker for the Canadian Red Cross. He was deployed to the Philippines for one year and will send updates on his experiences throughout the mission. This is Sebastien’s most recent blog post from the Philippines

While it is true that a rainbow often follows a storm, clear skies have yet to reach the Philippines. I participated as a team leader for the Canadian Red Cross’ field hospital deployment following Typhoon Haiyan and returned home last December. After seeing firsthand the devastation the typhoon had caused, I could only hope that calm would soon be restored to the country.

The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.

Six months since Typhoon Haiyan devastated the central Visayas region of the Philippines last November, the Red Cross has so far provided shelter and non-food items to 2.75 million people and over the next two years will help 800,000 survivors rebuild their lives.

In the Philippino province of Ilo Ilo, a smartphone app is helping the Red Cross kick off an ambitious plan to build or repair homes caught up in the destruction of Typhoon Haiyan.