CVS Caremark donates $50K to Red Cross typhoon-relief efforts

An aerial shot of the province of Leyte shows the extent of damage brought by Typhoon Haiyan in Leyte province, the Philippines, on Sunday, Nov. 10. On Tuesday, CVS Caremark announced a $50,000 donation to the American Red Cross, one of the multinational organizations accepting donations for disaster relief. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/RYAN LIM
An aerial shot of the province of Leyte shows the extent of damage brought by Typhoon Haiyan in Leyte province, the Philippines, on Sunday, Nov. 10. On Tuesday, CVS Caremark announced a $50,000 donation to the American Red Cross, one of the multinational organizations accepting donations for disaster relief. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/RYAN LIM

WOONSOCKET – The CVS Caremark Charitable Trust has donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross in support of relief efforts in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, the company announced Tuesday.

CVS Caremark is also working with the Red Cross to establish a dedicated online donation portal for any of its approximately 200,000 employees who want to contribute. The CVS Caremark Charitable Trust will match employee donations up to $50,000, for a potential total donation of as much as $100,000, CVS said.

“We know support is critically important at this time given the large number of people affected and potential for further damage in the Vietnam Peninsula,” said Eileen Howard Boone, president of the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust. “We are providing support to the American Red Cross as it helps the Philippine Red Cross with disaster relief specialists and equipment, as well as family-tracing services to help those that are trying to find missing loved ones. Our thoughts are with all of those across the region who have been impacted by this massive and devastating disaster.”

The New York Times reported Tuesday that United Nations officials in Geneva estimate more than 11 million people in the Philippines are in need of assistance and more than 670,000 lost their homes to the typhoon, which made landfall on the island nation Nov. 8.

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The U.N. appealed Tuesday for $301 million in emergency assistance to support disaster relief over the next six months, but The New York Times cited experts who estimate the damage to the Philippine economy between $12 billion and $15 billion, or roughly 5 percent of its gross domestic product.

Filipino-American organizations in Rhode Island – including the Filipino-American Association of Newport County, Lingkod Timog and H.O.P.E. Foundation International – are accepting donations by mail-in check to support relief efforts in the Philippines.

International Plan, a Warwick-based global development nonprofit, has also set up a typhoon-relief donation portal on its website.

Multinational organizations accepting donations include the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, the World Food Program and Unicef.

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