“In 20 years of doing humanitarian relief work, it’s the worst I have seen,” Ned Olney, deputy country director of Save the Children, told us in a meeting a few days ago.

Olney, who has been in the country for some three weeks, now finds himself in the eye of major relief efforts to do just that—save as many Filipino children who are suffering from the wreckage of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

At the end of the meeting, Olney said, “We need to change the stories we tell now, from one of despair and destruction, to one of recovery and hope.”

For every 10 stories you read or watch daily, choose seven or eight that are hopeful. The same goes for photographs. Positivity and goodness fuel the soul, adding stamina for the long road of recovery and rebuilding that lie ahead.

Thank God we are now seeing more positive stories and images in the media. The brain can take only so much sadness, and not everyone has the same capacity to absorb them. Even volunteers, including those in the medical profession, have said that the destruction and despair that has come out in the aftermath of Yolanda is beyond words.

Happy story

People in distress or despair easily break down. But it would be a different story if their hearts and minds are filled with inspiration, coupled with a body that is able to get enough sleep, and eat healthy.

Now let me tell you a happy story. Last Saturday, I and some colleagues and friends I went to Villamor Air Base to do volunteer work for Yolanda survivors. It was an experience I will always remember. Watching the C-130 planes land was both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

We had the chance to mingle with the evacuees as we sat with them and listened to their stories. One of them, a lady in her late 20s, caught our attention because of her smile and her quiet dignity. Working in Cebu as a call center agent, she managed to get to Tacloban the day after Yolanda to search for her parents and siblings. Mercifully, no one died and they were all safe.

For several days, she said, they had nothing to eat. So she thought it best to get her family on board the C-130 no matter where the destination. They arrived at Villamor with only the clothes on their back.

She shared her story with my friends Kristel Guce and Kristine Bañez. I offered her a hygiene kit which we were giving out. She smiled politely and said, “It’s okay ma’am, marami na pong naibigay sa amin. Doon na lang po sa bagong dating.”

Generosity

I was speechless—humbled by her generosity, this, from someone who had lost everything. She had not been able to sleep, she said, and all she wanted was to be able to bring her family back home to her little apartment in Cebu.

A few hours later, while on Facebook, I thought of writing about it. I also remembered how our company pulled out five employees from the devastation, sparing no cost, in the nick of time. Then I remembered Kristel saying that the young woman was working for Convergys; Kristel decided to make a call to the universe, hoping that someone on my contact list would see it and relay the message to Convergys.

Miracle

And this is where the miracle of God and social networking began.

It was a good thing that Kristel had taken down the woman’s name and mobile number as they talked the night before. Kristel posted her name, Mitch Casil, on the comment thread to my Facebook post.

An hour later, someone from Convergys had contacted Mitch. Unknown to me, until a few days later, a deluge of mail from her officemates had come into my spam mailbox. By noontime, Mitch and her family were fetched from Villamor by Ria Salvana, Convergys communications manager; the next day, the whole family was flown to Cebu.

In an online interview, Convergys president Marife B. Zamora said: “We have deployed security teams to search for employee family members in the most damaged areas; this search work is still ongoing… At least 300 of our employees’ families were adversely affected and this is our focus area. The direct relief from the company, combined with employee and client donations, will enable us to provide financial assistance they need to help rebuild their lives…”

There are other stories coming out of the places ravaged by Yolanda. Inspiration from the rubble is how I like to call it.

Yes, there has been destruction and despair far beyond human comprehension and imagination; but in its wake, there has been an outpouring of so much love from all over the country, from different parts of the world, in the most unexpected places.

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