The Swedish NGO Help@Hand makes difference for typhoon-affected children

Right now Mr. Kristian Rankloo, the founder of the Swedish NGO Help@Hand, travels in the Philippines to ensure that the organisation’s aid-project to the typhoon-affected families in the Ormoc area are working properly.

Help@Hand started as a private initiative by Kristian Rankloo in November 2013. At the time, the typhoon Haiyan hit the eastern Philippines and changed the lives of 14 million people. When Kristian Rankloo sat at home in Sweden and saw on TV what happened, he decided to go to the disaster areas to help.

At the same time he started a Facebook group, Kristian travels to the Philippines, which quickly gathered a considerable amount of money. During the ten days that Kristian was in Ormoc he distributed 25,000 portions of food. In the chaotic situation Kristian soon realized that the children, who wandered around the streets, needed to get back to safety at school.

Many contributors appreciated this direct method of working, and in 2016 the nonprofit organization Help@Hand was founded. Operations are carried out through various projects in the Philippines and Africa.

At this particular moment Mr. Kristian Rankloo is travelling around to some of the projects that the organization works with; education- as well as brushing teeth-projects at Smokey Mountain in Manila and school projects in Ormoc.

– In cooperation with donors from Sweden and Denmark, we see to relieve the affected families' finances by donating the school supplies that kids need. We are also involved in building and decorating a school, so that 360 children in Santa Fe gets a new school to go to, says Kristian Rankloo.

– The children in Santa Fe have not had a school since November 2013, which they will receive in the coming spring. On Friday (13:th of January), we have a follow-up meeting, where I meet the founder of the HOPE Project, upcoming school staff and the artisans who are building the school. A very exciting project and it will be fantastic to be able to give 360 children a school to go to, says Kristian Rankloo further.

Besides school projects in Ormoc, Kristian has also the recent days been at the Smokey Mountain in Manila, where Help@Hand helps young people to higher education.

– Through cooperation with a Swedish clothing company and ERDA Foundation, we give girls the opportunity for higher education. Together, we are sponsoring four girls and their opportunities for further studies, says Kristian Rankloo.

On the trip to the Smokey Mountain Kristian Rankloo met the four girls; Maira Jane Badlon, who studies a MBA in Marketing, Liza Marie Flor Dale, who studies to become a teacher, Jasmine Acnog, last year in high school and will continue studying the MSc in Electronics and Axel Lou Aligado, who studies to become an Auditor. At the meeting, the girls was dressed up in the finest they have and the mothers cried when they told how much it means to them that their daughters get the chance to study.

– I am so incredibly impressed with these girls driving force! To take in all the literature and knowledge in this environment, where the air is standing still and everything stinks, is to me incomprehensible! Water from garbage flowing in the furrows, and between six to ten people live in 3x3 meters below the garbage, says Kristian Rankloo.

For more information, please contact:
Mr. Kristian Rankloo, +46 707 33 50 10 or at kristian.rankloo@helpathand.se