Help Bohol Rebuild

Hi, my name is Ben Bucca and I created this fundraiser for my girlfriend's family and their hometown. My girlfriend's name is Datchie Acain and she and I currently live in Jersey City, NJ. Her family however lives in the Philippines, on an island province called Bohol. Recently several islands in the Philippines were hit by a storm called Super Typhoon Rai (also known/referred to in the Philippines as Odette). This storm was equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.

The island province of Bohol was one of the worst impacted; there is a rising death toll, wide-spread damage and destruction, and total power failure throughout the province. You can see more information about the typhoon, and pictures of Rai and the damage caused by it, by following the links here and here.

A little more about Datchie's family: they own and make a living from working their farm and rice field in Bohol. Sadly, the typhoon caused them to lose several of their farm animals. It also caused extensive damage to their crops and land.

We're raising funds to help them attempt to replace what they've lost and to perhaps bring them a little bit of extra hope and cheer for the holiday season. The exchange rate is favorable from USD to Philippine peso (almost 50:1) so any amount can and will go a long way towards helping out. Datchie will transfer to her family all donations as they come in. Donations will be used to provide help via rebuilding/replacing damaged and/or lost property and animals, and also to provide immediate help in the form of purchasing water, generators, and critical food supplies.

Thank you very much for reading and for your consideration.

Please see below for more pictures, and a message from Datchie:

"Hello, my name is Datchie. My hometown in the Philippines, called Pilar, in Bohol has been devastated by a typhoon and I want to help out in providing some relief. I want to help buy goods and repairs for my family and the people in my hometown. The people in my hometown are suffering, there is no electricity, barely any clean water, a low supply of food and no network services to communicate. I want to help the community and I thought of this platform to help make it possible. I'm knocking on the hearts of the people who can read this message to donate, no matter how much the amount is. Any amount that you decide to donate will be very much appreciated and will help a lot. Salamat (thank you)!"