Index of Updates from the Field
Peru Final Report
By Nussi - Program Officer, February 11, 2008 06:07 PM
The report below outlines CHF's response activities, which were made possible by the support of donors. Thank you for your generous support!
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Progress Report in Peru
By Eddie Argenal - CERT Team Member, November 05, 2007 05:41 PM
* 405 shelters built
* 125 latrines planned
* 84 small grants disbursed
* 3 communal kitchens built
* 8 classrooms built
* 561 families mobilized
As part of these efforts, the Emergency Response Team (CERT) has involved local engineering students for the shelter construction work and administration students for training and evaluation in the micro-business grant work. Eddie told me that the engineering students have been inspired by the project to create their own NGO in hopes of providing training on construction techniques.
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Personal Stories of Two Women Entrepreneurs on their way to Recovery
By Eddie Argenal - CERT Team Member, October 24, 2007 10:34 PM
Selinita Cabrera, 42 years old, lives in the neighborhood of Arenales in Ica, Peru. It was here that she had saved enough money to build a small adobe home for herself, her husband, her 17-year-old son, and her 67-year-old mother. Selinita earns her living selling flowers at the door of a nearby cemetery where she owns a flower stand.
Shortly after the earthquake, the CHF Emergency Response Team (CERT) met with Selinita at her flower stand. On the day of the quake, her mother had been resting at her house. “I was here working at the stand and ran to get my mother out of the house. But I arrived too late and found my house completely destroyed,” Selinita sadly recounted. “All night we looked for my mother’s body in the rubble, but we didn’t find it until the next day. I spent all of my savings on her funeral. We came to live here at the flower stand. Our beds are in the shed where I normally store the flowers. Look at how we are living….”
Two months later, Selinita is now back to work at the same flower stand, thanks to a small business grant from CHF International and the AIG Disaster Relief Fund. “Now I have the capital to begin again. First, CHF helped me with a shelter to live in where we are [doing much] better. And it is now the second week that I have brought flowers to sell. With the profits, little by little I will improve my stand.”
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Doña Luisa Araujo Bautista is a 56-year-old entrepreneur who runs a small food stand called “The Menu” in Ica, Peru. The earthquake on August 15th left her, her husband, and her three daughters without a home or their food stand, the primary source of income for this family.
“I was with my daughters in our house on the day of the earthquake. When we realized that the earthquake wasn’t stopping, we ran out of the house. In the passageway next to our house, part of the wall fell down and hit my daughter’s leg. When my husband tried to help her, he also got hurt. He still hasn’t been able to return to work as a bricklayer. At my food stand, I didn’t have dishes to serve food in or anywhere for people to sit, so my clients went to other places for lunch.”
With CHF International’s help, Luisa was able to purchase a stove, tables, benches, and dishware for her food stand. Now she and her daughters have begun a new phase of their business. “I didn’t believe that anyone was going to help us. We registered for assistance after the earthquake, but no one ever came back to help. Now that I have seen everything you have brought us--- no one has ever helped us like this. We will never forget CHF. We will always cherish this sticker to show everyone who helped us.”
“I look at how the number of clients has grown now that we have somewhere to sit and dishes. Now that we are working again, we don’t think about what the earthquake took from us. Thanks to you, we will regain everything through our hard work,” expressed Luisa.
“So, when will you come for lunch?”
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CHF plans to distribute 300 micro-business grants and complete 500 shelters by December. Help us to increase this number by half -- or even more!
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Beginning the on the Road to Recovery
By Milton Funes - Emergency Response Team lead, August 30, 2007 04:03 PM
Today, the district of San Jose de Los Molinos looks like a war zone. Debris and rubble are strewn everywhere, and people walk silently and despondently through town as if they are waiting to be awoken from a nightmare. Children play in dusty streets and often run toward the central plaza as soon as they learn that food, water, or any sort of assistance has arrived in town. This rural community, located 20 miles northeast of Ica and more than 70 miles south of the urban epicenter of the earthquake, Pisco, is suffering its second catastrophe in less than a decade. In 1999, floods swept through the area, and, as usually happens, this Afro-Peruvian community of 7,000 had to wait months to receive assistance.
The CHF Emergency Response Team (CERT) deployed within 48 hours of the quake to assess the situation and has been on the ground working with this community to ensure that these residents are not ignored a second time. “When a major disaster occurs, relief and early response tends to be concentrated in the most accessible areas. We at CHF International always try to respond to underserved
communities that usually don’t get immediate attention,” said Milton Funes, leader of CERT.
CHF International has already begun building safe, seismic-resistant transitional shelters for the most vulnerable households (the elderly, the disabled, women-headed households, and those with large families), and is the first organization to have begun doing so following the quake.
Still, in order to address the many needs of the community, including providing housing for more than 4,000 families, rebuilding the town's only health clinic, and rebuilding classrooms which have been destroyed, CHF urgently needs assistance to rapidly respond. In addition to San Jose de los Molinos, the CERT team has identified an additional rural town seven miles north which is awaiting relief.
Providing Shelter and Community Clean-Up
By Milton Funes - Emergency Response Team Lead, August 27, 2007 12:00 PM
While many responders have focused their relief efforts to last week's earthquake in major affected urban areas, there still remain many isolated rural communities which have yet to receive assistance.
One such community is in San Jose de Los Molinos, the Afro-Peruvian community of 7,000 people that has been often overlooked by traditional humanitarian response mechanisms. CHF's response here is focusing on helping them to access resources for emergency shelter and economic activity, thus enabling a more rapid and sustainable reduction of the current level vulnerability.
Currently, the situation in San Jose is dire. A week after the earthquake, many families are still living in the debris of what is left of their houses. They don’t dare to leave the remainder of their homes and risk losing their few remaining assets. At the same time, massive amounts of waste and debris are posing an extreme public health risk, the worst of which is an exposed cemetery located close to schools and a children’s playground. Insecurity continues to rise with reports of robbery and assault, and water and electricity still remain cut off.
Specifically, the CERT team will work with communities to build safe emergency shelters for individuals and families and provide communities with the tools and equipment they need to begin cleaning up the debris and rubble as a priority health prevention measure. In addition, the clean up activity will serve to clear space to build the shelters and to collect materials that can be used for construction of the shelters.
With an eye on bridging the divide from immediate relief to long-term development, the CERT team will also administer a small grant fund to help family members quickly regain livelihoods through productive activity and micro-enterprise. Small grants of around $300 each can be enough to help one family restart their home-based business, enough to help revitalize the local economy and begin restoring a sense of normalcy in a truly devastated community.
Views and Voices from the Ground
By Milton Funes - CHF Emergency Response Team Lead, August 23, 2007 05:44 PM
The Government of Peru has reported upwards of 1,000 injuries from last Wednesday’s devastating 7.9 earthquake. In addition to the destruction of more than 37,000 homes, several dozen schools, health centers, and hospitals have been severely damaged. Many areas still lack basic needs such as electricity, clean water, and access to communications due to the earthquake. The hardest hit areas are Pisco, Chincha Alta, and Ica and surrounding areas, about 200 miles southeast of Lima, the capital of Peru.
In addition, the local cemetery was completed destroyed, exposing coffins and bodies, and leaving residents vulnerable to a serious potential health risk.
In Lima, Peru’s capital, CHF International is in close contact with the Government of Peru, through the National Institute of Civil Defense (INDECI), the United Nations (UN), and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) to coordinate relief efforts on the ground.
The CHF Emergency Response Team (CERT) is on the ground working to assess damage, and has reported total destruction of at least 70% of houses. The team has also found that communities in some districts of Ica, such as San José de los Molinos, have yet to receive any emergency assistance. In responding, CERT will address the needs of those communities that have been left most vulnerable by the damage.
One Afro-Peruvian community of 7,000 people, for example, is suffering its second catastrophe in less than a decade:
“…. in January 1999, flooding washed away our district. Then, like today, relief assistance came late…we are Afro-Peruvian communities, and still we suffer from discrimination,” said Guillermo Falcon, leader of a local NGO called Siempre Amigos Buenos y Unidos (SABU, or “Always Good and United Friends”). SABU has been collaborating with the CERT team during the field assessment.
“Our houses were [completely damaged]. Those that still stand will need to get demolished. We are all small producers; we don’t generate much, we hope somebody will help us to get back on our feet again,” Mr. Falcon added.
Mrs. Rosa Acuña, who lives with her elder parents and brother, is one of the residents who lost her house. “We keep our faith in God and are sure that somebody will help us,” she stated.
Auris Carmona’s house was also destroyed. Today, her 11 family members are apart; they’ve been assigned to different public shelters.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported yesterday that 18,462 people have settled in community shelters where basic assistance is being provided. However, many of the affected families have decided to stay on their property to try and re-build their homes from the debris.
In the region, one of the most challenging barriers to relief efforts is difficult road conditions. Many parts of the Pan-American Highway were severely damaged in the quake, and road conditions in more remote areas are still not fully known, leaving open the possibility that many isolated affected communities have not yet been reached.
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