The Filipino community in the San Francisco Bay Area is organizing benefit concerts, school food drives and sidewalk fundraisers to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

California is home to 47 percent of 3.4 million Filipinos in the U.S. Approximately 400,000 are located near San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose according to the San Francisco Filipino American Chamber of Commerce.

“My message to these [victims] is that there are people in the world who care, and who care deeply about the fate they are going through and what they’re suffering,” said Ian Robertson, artistic director of San Francisco Boys Chorus. “I would like them to know we are here in our small way to help them as much as possible,” he added.

The San Francisco Boys Chorus held a benefit concert at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland on Nov. 24. That night, approximately 600 people attended and over $15,000 was raised, according to the concert organizers.

The music was focused on positive entertainment as the community came together to reach out to those who have not heard from friends and families in the typhoon stricken areas.

In San Francisco, Project PEARLS, “Peace, Education, Aspiration, Respect, Love, Smiles,” a non-profit organization founded by mother and daughter, Melissa Villa and Francesca Villa Mateo, also moved into high gear to help the victims.

“We were scared when we heard about it and devastated seeing it on the news, you know,” said Jennifer Cortes, Project PEARLS volunteer and spokesperson.

“Together we need to rebuild the lives of the survivors. We assembled boxes full of donated food and supplies to send through LBC Express, San Bruno and Sacramento with 57 boxes each and San Jose State University with an unknown number,” said Cortes.

LBC is a Philippine owned 24-hour air cargo delivery service with a branch in San Francisco.

The 100 plus boxes will be received a month from now, said Cortes.

Project PEARLS’ primary mission is to aid Filipino children living in poverty to provide health and basic education. Their outreach projects include the restoration of public schools and hospital visits to pediatric wards.

In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, Project PEARLS plans to continue working with other Bay Area organizations to cater to the survivors who have to live under those grim conditions, the founders said.

A number of organizations such as the American and Philippine Red Cross, UNICEF, World Vision and U.N. World Food Programme, to name a few, are taking in donations which are immediately spent on providing further assistance.

Hours after news of the typhoon’s destruction was reported, students at Washington High School in Fremont were already organizing a car wash fundraising event. “Come and help, come and help,” one of the students shouted, surrounded by others holding signs in support of the victims. “People in the Philippines need your help. We’ll wash your car for a donation.”

Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda, struck the Eastern Islands on early Friday morning of November 8. Prior to its arrival, forecasters warned that this might be the strongest storm in recorded history. The 235 mph winds tore right through the province on Leyte. More than 5,600 have been reported dead in the aftermath, and the death toll continues to rise.

Primarily a 16-foot-high barrier of ocean water that pulverized the city of Tacloban caused the damage; it destroyed homes and swept countless people away.

It was nearly 3.5 times more intense than that of Hurricane Katrina and was large enough to stretch from Spain to Sweden, as stated in a CNN news report. The consequences of the disaster have left families pleading for food and water, medical assistance and the reconstruction of their hometowns.