HELPING HAND: The Filipino expatriates who received the cheques. PICTURE: Rannie Tanchico

By Joey Aguilar


A total of 126 Filipino expatriates in Qatar whose families were affected by the Haiyan typhoon received cash donations from the Consolidated Contractors Group (CCC) at the Philippine embassy recently.
Each of the beneficiaries received QR1,900 from officials of the company during a simple ceremony held at the chancery in Jelaiah area.
Culture Attache Richard Billedo told Community that CCC initially planned to bring the donation to the Philippines. However, it later decided to help Filipino expatriates directly hit by the calamity.
The super typhoon has flattened many of the houses in Tacloban City in the Visayas region and left more than 7,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. Some expatriates also lost their loved ones during the typhoon.
A total of QR246,000 was given to the beneficiaries who thanked the company and the embassy for extending help to them.
Philippine Ambassador Crescente Relacion, together with HR manager Adel Abdul Al and personnel manager Mohd Khaled Sobh, led the cheque distribution at the chancery.
The ambassador has also noted that many government-owned, private companies and embassies in Doha have donated cash to victims of typhoon in the past months.
Hundreds of volunteers and groups also shared their time in repacking tonnes of relief goods donated by Filipinos and other expatriate communities. Other nationalities trooped to the chancery to volunteer for a number of weeks.
Many organisations also held their own fun drives — such as the three-day Run the World Festival at Katara beach — to raise donations.
The embassy, which organised a thanksgiving night earlier, has stopped accepting relief goods except for cash donations.