OUR INFRASTRUCTURE is damaged. Our psyche, it is said, is even more damaged. Our institutions are corrupted. We always seem to run into misfortune. Yet ? as these answers show, the Filipinos are a good people. That about says it all.

Amina Aranaz-Alunan
Creative director, Aranaz Bags

Being pregnant, I cannot be on the frontlines of relief activities. So I am taking efforts that are manageable. We?ve tapped our stores at Rockwell and Greenbelt, as drop-off points for donations. We?ve distributed goods to affected communities, we also have a relief drive at the School of Fashion & the Arts. I also joined my friend?s impromptu ?relief kitchen? in her house in Katipunan, where a number of us packed food while others delivered to Marikina.

Next week, we will hold a fundraiser with Rags2Riches by Aranaz on October 6, 6 p.m., at Power Plant Mall where we will have a silent auction of one-of-a-kind pieces.

The work, though, will not stop after a week of relief activities. Those who have been badly hit by this tragedy will need our help for a long time before they can get back on their feet. I hope and pray that we all will not tire of lending a helping hand. This is a time I truly understand what bayanihan is about and am proud to be Filipino. This, I feel, is another showcase of the true Filipino brand of People Power.

Eric Chao
Marketing manager,
The White Hat frozen yogurt shop

We donated clothes. We are giving a sum to each employee as help in time of calamity. Androcor Inc., our franchisee of the Alabang Town Center store, has generously offered to donate his entire day?s sales on Friday to the Red Cross. We will also donate P5 for every cup sold until Oct. 15.

Brian Tenorio
Shoe designer and graduate student at NYC?s Pratt Institute, who grew up in Provident Village, Marikina

I feel very sad that I wasn?t with my mom and relatives when the floods happened. I couldn?t sleep, eat or think straight as I watched and read the updates on TV and on Facebook from New York. September 26 was my birthday and noontime in Manila was the last I talked to my mom? After that, no news from them except for a short SMS on Sunday: ?Kuya, we are safe...?

That must have been one of the most difficult 24 hours of my life, waiting for news from family.

Even before the calamity struck, I had set for October 10 a birthday celebration in a lounge in Park Avenue. I?ve decided to turn that more festive celebration into a fundraiser. I also know that whatever support I will give to our community and my city (Marikina) will be ongoing into the future.

The relief and support, I think, should not stop after a month. Those who lost their savings, homes and possessions, will need a longer time to recover. Those who lost their loved ones will need our encouragement, prayers and support for years to come.

James Reyes
Fashion designer

I?m so thankful that my family and friends are all well and their homes okay.

One of my sewers wasn?t so lucky. Her home was inundated after a wall from a neighboring village collapsed. Like a few others, she had to tear off the ceiling to get to the roof with her two children! She lost everything, but thankfully they survived with just a few cuts and bruises.

I?ve been helping her start again, giving extra beddings and towels, basic toiletries, clothes. I?ve also gathered children?s clothes for her two kids.

So far, I?ve been helping out people I know. I?ve also been using my computer time (on Facebook, Multiply) to inform people of relief centers and what to donate.

Jackie Aquino
Fashion director

What?s happening is really sad and, I think, more an effect of mankind?s carelessness. I hope this is a wake-up call to us from Mother Nature.

One thing I?m convinced of. With global warming as the main cause, I will spend my time helping disseminate information on what we can all do to decrease its effects and save what we can for the sake of our children. Education and information are still our best ally and prove that the pen is still mightier than the sword.

John Silva
Writer and consultant to National Museum

I?m helping my immediate neighborhood. I got all my old clothes and brought them to a nearby shanty and gave them to people who no longer had roof over their heads. The Museum Foundation office was ankle-deep in water and so many coffee-table books for sale were destroyed. The office will have to pay for that so I will have museum tour days when all proceeds go to the foundation.

Marina Benipayo
Model

The disaster was personal for me because of my mother and brother. I wanted to rush to my mom?s place the next morning to see how she was since she couldn?t be contacted. My brother assured me they were okay.
My kids and I went to her place as soon as the water had subsided. We stayed with her the whole day. I?m waiting for confirmation from my former schoolmates in Marikina if we will be visiting friends whose houses were damaged. The kids have already donated clothes to families in Taguig. Hopefully, I?ll be able to join PMAP (Professional Models Association of the Philippines) in distributing relief goods to people living in Pasig.

Ito Kish
Furniture designer and owner of Kish

Among my store?s featured items this month are these beautiful tea lights. For the entire October, I will donate 100 percent of sales from these tea lights to the Philippine National Red Cross to help flood victims. I also made personal donations to a couple of organizations.

Patrice Ramos Diaz
Fashion designer

My first instinct was to scour our closets for clothes, towels, blankets and anything we could give. I combed our closets thrice, each time hoping to get more things to give away. My kids did their share and as I watched them put their clothes in the boxes, I silently said a prayer, thanking God for keeping us safe.

I helped wherever I could, heeding calls from friends to either give, deliver, repack or distribute goods. Everyone got busy helping. Friends and relatives have either set up soup-kitchens, repacking operations or gone to evacuation sites to feed people.

I also asked clients and friends to help me help my workers whose houses went underwater, since I knew that whatever I could give would never be enough.

Ingrid Go
Owner of Tresor and Accessory Lab

First, I have taken to making sure all our affected employees [in business and at home] are able to cope. We have four employees who are severely affected, one losing everything. We?re giving our unconditional support, cash and in kind, to make sure they get back on their feet again.

Second, I?m collaborating with a group called Moms for Moms to make sure we?re able to buy enough relief goods for distribution to Fabella as well as to Alay ng Puso in Del Pan, Tondo. We have raised a good amount for Fabella Hospital to buy equipment, but now that there?s a more immediate need, we are channeling a portion of our funds to help flood victims.

Third, I continue to buy whatever things I can to donate and to drop off at relief centers as I am still unable to head out to affected areas because of my allergies and laryngitis.

Frannie Jacinto
Homemaker, civic worker

Having responded to various disasters in the country for the past 10 years, I knew we would need a lot of donations for those affected ? and I immediately sent out a request for donations to friends, relatives and even online to my Facebook friends and listeners of RJ 100.3. My daughter, Natalia, responded right away and spent her first paycheck to buy foodstuff and water.

My Karilagan ex-models based in the US pledged dollar donations so that blankets, towels and various foodstuffs could be bought and brought to the various groups I usually donate to in times of crisis.

I have many factory-owner friends and have tapped them to sell us their towels, canned goods, vitamins, medicines and other items needed to be bought in bulk by the donations pouring in to various charitable organizations and I spread the word around so the peso can be stretched even further.

Lulu Tan Gan
Fashion designer

I?m donating towels, blankets to those who texted me. I am also donating some appliances to friends who are victims of this calamity. On Nov. 10, I will be having my gala show and I have pledged to donate my entire talent fee to the victims.

Donnie Tantoco
President, Rustan?s Supercenters, Inc.

Bonbon, my driver, who lives in the Rosario-Pasig area, and his family were our main concern. We coordinated and worked closely with my Tito Vincent and Tita Cedie Vargas (Carina, the wife of Bon, works for them). Bonbon and his family, and their half-paralyzed daughter and newborn grandchild, endured about two nights on their rooftop without food. We were finally able to reach and evacuate them mid-morning of Monday, September 28. We are setting them up in a new place and helping them rebuild their lives.

We have been working through various relief groups such as ABS-CBN; Children?s Hour (Anton Huang); Red Cross (Marivic Poblador Pineda); Araneta family (Oye Forres), to get foodstuffs and other basic necessities to the victims of ?Ondoy.?

Rajo Laurel
Fashion designer

I began by ordering a truck-load of food items, like rice, noodles, canned goods and started to pack them. Then I decided to send this to White Space along Pasong Tamo for distribution. My mother has already been to Marikina, Pasig and Cainta to deliver other goods and to find out what they need. The work is still not done. We are securing more supplies and I am also working very closely with the Red Cross.

As you know I am a staunch Red Cross supporter, they are on top of my list with regards to my advocacies. My gala show last year provided the Red Cross a handsome sum and my Rags2Riches projects always concentrate on the Red Cross and I am very delighted that they were really the most effectively run crisis operation in the country.

Randy Ortiz
Fashion designer

I did my share of delivering and doling out through the outreach program of Professional Models Association of the Philippines, but what I realized was to involve the fashion community in a project not necessarily a fundraiser but that which aims to elevate awareness level of everyone concerning the serious problems of global warming and its harmful effects. This involves proper dissemination of information through a collaborative effort by the media, government and private sector using fashion as medium to convey this message, making us all realize that flash floods could be only the symptom of a much bigger problem.

Joey Samson
Fashion designer

Finding out that places and even exclusive villages that?s not usually affected by flood were also waist-deep in water, including exclusive villages in Marikina, brought home the point of how grave the situation was. It seems all the relief goods and help we could give are not enough. I?m doing my share by giving help directly to people I know so that help is more immediate.