Anna’s quest
Four years since one of the biggest cyclones on record tore through her birthplace, Anna McDougall has worked tirelessly to send aid to impoverished areas of the Philippines and a ship moored in Hobart is her greatest initiative yet
W hen Anna McDougall was a little girl in the Philippines, she remembers sitting on the rocks, gazing out at the ocean and wondering what was out there. Her large family lived on the pearl-shaped Camiguin Island, a tiny speck of land in the Bohol Sea. Finding enough food every day for the family of 10 was a constant battle and McDougall’s favourite way to escape hunger pains was hobbling over the beach rocks. Now a Tasmanian, she dreams that one day soon the impoverished children of the Philippines will look out to the horizon and see an old fishing trawler full of aid from faraway Hobart sailing into port.
Four years ago, the Philippines was smashed by one of the biggest cyclones recorded. Typhoon Haiyan’s 380km/h wind gusts and its 8m-high storm surge killed 6400 people and left 14 million people homeless. The Philippines, made up of more than 7100 islands, is hit by 20 typhoons on average each year.
For McDougall, 34, the news was gut-wrenching. It triggered painful memories of her own family home being swept away by a typhoon storm surge when she was just six. “I remember not eating for four days and then walking for miles to the mountain to bring back bananas, root grubs and baby bamboo shoots so we could survive,” she says. She and her siblings regularly ate spoiled food and bathed and drank from mud puddles. “We were always hungry, our tummies always grumbling,” she says.
Her father died from poor nutrition when he was 32. McDougall was 11 and became the main food gatherer for her family. At 14 she was working as a maid and financially supporting them all. Seven years later she was offered a role as a secretary for a shipping company and that’s when she met her husband, Malcolm. She moved to Australia with him in 2011 and they married a year later.
Despite being a long way away when Haiyan hit, McDougall was determined to help. She began by saving hard so she and Malcolm could return to the Philippines to see the damage for themselves and find out what was most needed. For eight months the couple ate homegrown vegetables and two-minute noodles, and McDougall juggled three jobs, while they saved enough money to return.
When they finally reached the city of Tacloban, where 2000 Filipinos died, everyone they spoke to had at least someone in their family who was dead or missing – 800 people from that area were never found. Thousands had been trying to swim to safety when 10 anchored ships came crashing in on top of them.
“You could still smell the decaying bodies trapped under the ships,” McDougall recalls of that visit. The couple saw a young mother wearing nothing but caked-on dirt and dust trying to bathe her child in a trickle of sewerage. They also met a young girl aged about 10 who had lost her entire extended family and was caring for a baby she had found under two rusted pieces of corrugated iron.
After staying for two weeks, the couple returned to Tasmania determined to help. They set up a not-for-profit group: Project Philippines Australia Inc. Through this organisation, they have since co-ordinated biannual gifts of humanitarian aid, including feeding and educational programs, and boat repairs for some of the most impoverished areas.
But it’s never enough and four years on, Filipino families are still homeless and living in deplorable conditions with lean-tos made of rice sacks and rusty sheets of iron. “It’s not humane,” McDougall says. “Because of the frequency of typhoons, they never really get a chance to get on their feet.”
Four years ago, TasPorts offered the McDougalls a decrepit rust bucket of a fishing trawler, the Corvina, that was destined for the scrap heap. Ever since, the couple have been working to fill it with aid materials – and make it seaworthy so it can complete the 21-day journey to the Philippines with a volunteer crew of 11 Tasmanians.
It’s moored at the Domain end of Macquarie Wharf No.6, half-filled with the kinds of medical and educational goods these impoverished people really need. This includes lifesaving items like hospital beds, baby incubators and blood pressure machines donated by the Hobart Private Hospital, 400 bags of new baby clothes, blankets and educational materials like writing and reading books and pencils.
The couple are hoping to also add building supplies and nonperishable food items before they set off. After it delivers the aid, the Corvina is to be used by a Philippines maritime college to train students for future aid missions.
The McDougalls hope that they are now just months away from fulfilling their exhausting and emotional four-year journey. But there are still several hurdles in their way.
Dozens of Tasmanian people and businesses have donated their time and skills to the value of about $400,000 to clean up the Corvina and make essential repairs. McDougall has juggled three part-time jobs, including cleaning, aged care and salmon deboning, to chip in $30,000. But there is still work to be done.
The couple have an arrangement with TasPorts to moor the Corvina and buy it for $1 – as soon as all the safety requirements are met. But TasPorts says the Corvina is still not ready to sail.
Getting it up to scratch – and filling it with the necessary fuel for the voyage – is going to cost another $100,000. The pair hope to make half of that at an upcoming charity auction and the remainder through public donations from Tasmanians.
“We’re hoping if people and companies and even the Government really understand the atrocities these people are still enduring, they may consider contributing financially to this project,” McDougall says.
“There will be people who think that we aren’t going to get there, but we are persisting. Anyone can say it won’t work, but I believe the people of Tasmania will help us get this little boat off the wharf. I’m hoping I can show my people that what’s out there is love and hope.” Donate to Philippines Project Australia at: mycause.com.au/ page/169983/help-alleviate-philippines-poverty The Project Philippines art and jewellery auction will be held at Hotel Soho, 124 Davey St, next Thursday at 6pm. Major works by Anton Holzner and Margaret Skowronski will be sold at the auction, with jewellery by Maxima Collection. For further details, email projectphilippines.australia14@gmail.com or phone Anna McDougall on 0408 123 805