Deadly Typhoon Rai has affected almost two million people in the Philippines leaving 631,000 people displaced just before Christmas.

The destruction to homes we are witnessing is truly harrowing.

Teams at ShelterBox are readying themselves to distribute shelter aid and other essential items the charity has stored in the country to people whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.

With gusts of up to 150mph, the typhoon is one of the most severe storms in the world this year – hitting a country still rebuilding having been storm ravaged before.

Typhoon Rai is on a scale our team in the Philippines simply haven’t seen before - it’s left large areas of the country devastated, and we’re expecting the death toll and damage reports to get much worse.

The situation is desperate and that’s why we’ve launched a Typhoon Rai Appeal. We’ll be doing everything we can to help shelter families who have lost so much. That’s possible thanks to our supporters who in times of crisis come together.

To find out more about the relief effort and how to help as families start to rebuild their homes, your readers can visit the ShelterBox website - shelterbox.org/where-we-work/super-typhoon-rai/.

Alice Byron

ShelterBox