MERCY Malaysia will send its first relief team into Region 5, with a focus on Albay and Catanduanes, on the 5th of December 2006. The team will evaluate medical and humanitarian needs for the recovery of the displaced population. Based on information received to date, the urgent needs are temporary shelters, clean water and health services.

“MERCY Malaysia plans to support the health services and will work with our partners in the country. The medical team will be despatched in the next couple of days. We plan to mobilize teams for a period of at least one month. We will assess the mid to long term recovery needs and develop a plan of action to support the communities,” said Associate Professor Dr. Mohd Ikram Mohamed Salleh.

As of 1 December, 600 (Source: Reuters AlertNet, 3 December 2006) people are believed to have died or are missing as a result of Typhoon Durian which battered the Philippines last Thursday. Torrential rain and winds of up to 225 kph sent waves of mud hurtling down Mount Mayon – an active volcano 320 km south of Manila – onto nearby villages. Early reports say that the typhoon has affected the lives of 800,000 people, destroying 28,000 homes and displacing more than 25,000 people.

Typhoon Durian, a notch below a category 5 “super typhoon” when it first hit the Philippines, has since weakened to a category 1 typhoon and is expected to hit Vietnam’s coast today.

MERCY Malaysia is a medical organization that provides humanitarian aid in crisis and non-crisis situations. We serve local communities through outreach programmes and our focus for the future will be to ensure that vulnerable communities in Malaysia are better prepared through risk education and disaster preparedness. MERCY Malaysia is active internationally and has sent relief missions to Kosovo, Cambodia, Indonesia (Maluku Island, Nias, Aceh and Jogjakarta), Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Pakistan, Maldives and Lebanon. MERCY Malaysia also runs a Drug Rehabilitation and Assistance Programme to assist drug reformers return to society.