“You can imagine there are bodies still underneath the destroyed houses,” Worms, of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, told The Catholic Register on his return from a Caritas Internationalis mission to assess the situation in the east-central Philippines. “It’s a very hard situation.”

But while visiting a feeding station in Cebu — the city many typhoon refugees have fled to — he was approached by a woman who was sheltering with her two children from the constant rain under a fragment of what once was the roof of her house. The woman, however, wasn’t asking for aid for herself.

“Here is my neighbour. She is eight months pregnant,” she told Worms. “She has two children. She has no more house. She is the one. Here is also my other neighbour. She has five children. She is also the one that needs to be helped first.”

That generosity among the victims of one of the worst typhoons ever came up over and over again as Caritas officials toured the damage. Development and Peace is Canada’s official partner in the worldwide Caritas network.

“There is a great solidarity between the people and that’s really an inspiration,” Worms said.

So far Development and Peace has collected $1,527,000 in donations, including a $500,000 cheque from the archdiocese of Toronto. The archdiocese continues to collect money from its 224 parishes. Ottawa has extended its deadline for matching funds to Dec. 23.

The reconstruction phase of the relief effort will last “at least two to three years,” said Worms. He compares the scale of the destruction to Haiti’s 2010 earthquake where Development and Peace continues to assist reconstruction projects.

The immediate needs include cash for people who have lost their income and houses for people the storm left homeless.

“So many people told me we need first to have a roof so our families are protected,” Worms said.

Maltesers International has managed to extend emergency relief to about 20,000 people, distributing packages that contain food, household and hygiene items. The aid agency of the Sovereign Order of Malta has also distributed 800 tarpaulin sets for temporary shelters to villages near Tacloban City on Samar Island.

“You have to see the Philippines. It’s thousands of little islands, remote communities,” said Worms. “To get the goods to the communities takes time. But now the system is in place.”

The relief efforts will soon transition from emergency relief to reconstruction, said Worms.

“Livelihoods also have to be rebuilt,” he said.

That includes building and repairing boats so fishermen can get back to work, replanting coconut groves flattened by 200-kilometre-per-hour winds and restoring rice paddies and fields.