Each person in our communities deserves a safe home — especially during natural disasters and an increasingly urgent climate crisis.

Typhoon Vamco, known as Typhoon Ulysses in the Philippines, hit the island country’s Cagayan region earlier in November. It displaced thousands of families, wrecked homes, and swept away livestock. Vamco was later determined to be the world’s strongest storm this year, following Typhoon Goni that made landfall just weeks before.

In the aftermath of the back-to-back typhoons, local and national community organizing began to bring relief to families impacted by the flooding. Natural disasters like Vamco are happening all over the world, worsened by the urgent climate crisis and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Communities are rallying together to hold the government accountable in addressing the world’s pressing, interconnected problems.

Environmental crises affect low-income and communities of color the hardest. We don’t have to look farther than our own country to see examples of how environmental hazards and environmental crises impact our own American families. Let’s remind ourselves, and our lawmakers, that our collective fates are intertwined in our access to clean water, air, food, and aid in disasters – this need knows no borders.

To give to the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns’ (NAFCON) fundraising campaign, please visit tinyurl.com/2020typhoons. NAFCON has partnered with local Cagayan organizations like the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center providing on-the-ground support.