A NANTWICH college lecturer has answered a call for help from rural communities hit by a typhoon in the Philippines.

Typhoon Melor made its landfall on the largely rural and impoverished region of Northern Samar in December before going on to strike several other islands across the central Philippines.

President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity on Friday, December 18, to hasten rescue, recovery, relief, and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of the devastating typhoon.

Jonathan ‘Jono’ Finlow, Reaseheath College arboriculture assessor and lecturer, answered the president’s call for help and left for the Philippines on December 31.

Jono is part of DART International UK (Disaster Arborist Response Team), a global response relief charity made up of volunteers.

A spokesman for Reaseheath College said: “After receiving a formal request for assistance from the mayor of San Jose, a coastal town in Northern Samar, a DART team of Jono, team leader Gary Bailey, team medic James Enticknap-Green and Graham Beer, left for the Philippines on New Year’s Eve.

Although more than three quarters of a million people were safely evacuated, 41 people died and many more are missing or injured.

Tens of thousands of homes and public properties have been destroyed and more than 280,000 people are sheltering in evacuation centres.

The Reaseheath spokesman said: “They are spending two weeks on the stricken island clearing typhoon debris to allow safe access for other relief teams and treating damaged and high risk trees.

“If appropriate, and with the approval of local community leaders, they are also training local volunteers in chainsaw handling and tree clearance and may donate machinery and safety equipment to those they have trained.”

Jono, who assesses apprentices and teaches on the Level 3 Diploma in Forestry and Arboriculture at the Nantwich college, also runs The Good Tree Company and is a DART trustee.

His disaster relief work is supported by students and staff, who raise funds for the charity.

The Reaseheath spokesman added: “Jono really is an inspiration to the students here.”