I work in a care home in Cambridge, where I live with my British husband. I came over two years ago from Tacloban City, Philippines, which was severely affected by Typhoon Haiyan (Reports, 16 November). My whole community of the Fisherman's Village, where my mother is chairman, has been decimated. My family, neighbours and school friends lost their homes and many their lives. Those who have survived the typhoon need food, water and medicine. They desperately need shelter too. I would ask the good readers of the Guardian if they might help with donations to the British Red Cross (www.redcross.org.uk). Even £1 would help.

Jennelyn Carter-Woodrow

Cambridge

• Four years in the Philippines has convinced me that the horrific casualty rate of the regular typhoons owes as much to human as natural causes. Mainly, the unequal distribution of wealth and the influence of the Catholic church. Almost 90% of the country's wealth is controlled by 9% of its population. In their concrete houses, they are safe from the storms which devastate the flimsy shelters of the less fortunate. The Catholic church's resistance to birth control has ensured a massive population explosion, further poverty and more typhoon victims.

Brendan Lynch

Dublin

• In a Philippines without food, clean water, shelter or transport links, how are the world's reporters and cameramen finding all these things?

Godfrey Holmes

Chesterfield, Derbyshire