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Due to excessive rain a natural
disaster hit Northern Venezuela
with massive landslides and floods, killing thousands.
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"...The people of Venezuela are known for their joyful spirit and friendly nature. At this
time of the year people would be out in the streets doing their last
Christmas shopping, loud music would play everywhere and the houses would
be colorfully decorated. Right now the panorama looks quite different:
many shops are closed because some of the family members have died or are
still missing....
...A few days ago President Chavez had declared three days of
national mourning. But after the three days passed still the people feel more like crying than celebrating....
...Our last meeting which was supposed to be our Christmas
party was filled with people sobbing or just being silent in remembrance of what
has happened. |
| Yesterday there was a vigil where all the choirs of the city participated.
As an entrance fee everybody was asked to bring a toy for the affected
children.
When the children's choir was singing many people started to cry.
In the Presidential Palace they requested every family to donate some of
the typical national Christmas food for all the orphan children who are
distributed in different centers of the city. Nobody can tell the exact
number of children, but it's in the hundreds.
... ... we now are working as volunteers with the
children of the families which have been accommodated in the University
Campus., because we find it very important to look after the education of these children ...
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...It's wonderful to see how
all the soldiers and volunteers
are
engaged in saving and
consoling their fellow brothers
and sisters. .. |
28th of December
A member of AMURT Switzerland arrived and is planning with us how
help from Europe may reach Venezuela
We went to the NGO meeting in the United Nation building. They gave an
update of the work going on and the different plans the government has in
terms of relocating the people. They want to relocate everybody in the next
twenty days in different locations all over the country. Some objections
were raised as people will need more time to recover from the impact of the
disaster before they know where they want to resettle. Yet the government
needs to move fast as most of the shelters are located in schools which
reopen the 3rd of January; and in military bases which is causing a
security problem.
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29th December
We went to the main center where people are sheltered now. It is a big
sports hall. Many other centers are being closed and the people are being
send there. There were lots of needs to be taken care of , specially now
that more and more volunteers are going back to normal life. We distributed
300 pieces of clothes and many people were left wanting/needing.
The image of
thousands of people living together in a big open space without any privacy
made quiet an impact. It wasn’t very clean and the smell was bad. The
biggest concern at the moment is the outbreak op any contagious disease.
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4th January 2000
Yesterday we had a medical camp in a place affected by the floods of a few
weeks ago. It is called Santa Barbara, has about 2000 inhabitants and lies
in the state of Miranda. It is a very poor area about 3 hours drive from
Caracas. The drive is longer than usual as two bridges on the way to that
place have been swept away by the floods. Flood waters reached one to two
meters high but all were evacuated on time so nobody died. When returning
to their place after a few days, many houses had been destroyed. Most
houses are made of mud with some plastering on the outside. All their
belongings were destroyed by the water. The streets are full with garbage
which includes mattresses, furniture etc. They have no running water and
no electricity. Lack of dinking water is the most serious problem.
We brought 600 liters of drinking water and a doctor. Also we distributed new
clothing. The need in that place, and in several other places nearby there,
is very great. We are thinking to 'set up camp' there and volunteers to
help us will be welcome. Tomorrow we'll go again and do another medical camp.
We distributed food for children in one of the camps.
9th January 2000
Last Friday we had another medical camp in Santa Barbara (2000 people). We
brought 300 liters of drinking water. We also touched another community (80
people) who had lost houses, belongings and their regular income due to the
floods. The drinking water we brought was very appreciated.
...carrying drinking water,
doctors and medicines from one place to another. we are trying to fulfill
the most immediate needs. We have to continue to take care of the need for
drinking water. Several children showed signs of serious dehydration due to
diarrhea as a result of drinking unclean water. But soon we will see signs
of serious malnutrition too. Soon we will set up a soup kitchen in that area.
On the way back we got caught in a crossfire between the police and some
"bandits" escaping in a car...
I can't tell you more details about what happened because the doctor
sitting beside me in the car, pulled me down...
Yet, the real shock was still to come. While driving back we passed a group
of at least ten children standing beside the road with little bottles in
their hands making gestures, asking/begging for drinking water. The road
and the traffic was such that if we would have stopped we would have caused
an accident. All of us, were left feeling very uncomfortable. There was something really horrible about that
scene. Tomorrow we will check out that place to see what is happening there.
Our people in Caracas are doing a wonderful work with the children that pass
through Poliedro, a center for the victims of the floods. They do a lot of
drawing with them. We observed that about 90% of the free drawing they do
is about houses and rain (they all lost their houses during heavy
rainfall) and, thank God, an occasional sun amongst the clouds...
12th January 2000
For the last two days we
went twice to the affected area to bring a total of 600 liters of
drinking water.
We revisited a community who told us that we were the only ones to come and
offer help.
We went to a different community to bring water. This one we visited for
the first time. It is a small fisher village with wonderful people. We had
come to
give them something, but actually they gave us much more. While we emptied
our car giving them water bottles, they filled our car with young coconuts.
We gave them our presence, they gave us their hospitality, even though many
of them had lost their houses. The flood waters had come with such force
that where before there was a house, now there is only a big hole in the
ground full with water. The hole was dug in the ground by a whirlpool. The
force of nature is amazing.
We have made
contact with the Rotary Club who has received big donations of food which
they may chanelise through us. Very timely because we made contact with
other communities and they are becoming desperate due to lack of drinking
water and food..
23th January 2000
We are working now with a preschool program in Fuerte Tiuna, a military camp
for about 6000 affected people. Yesterday we had a meeting with one of the
five supervisors of the Department for Education of the Caracas schools,
who admitted that they don't have any resources now for teachers or materials.
She liked the work we are doing in this little project.
We are working together with two professionals who have been send to work with
the children, one is a psychologist and one a teacher, but not for
preschool, so they don't know a whole lot about that area and our help is
really needed. Until now there are no resources at all, that means no
chairs, tables, shelves, etc and almost no materials to work with. The
toilets are not fixed, yet, and there is no running water (they promised to
fix it this weekend). They have a few more developed places for the
children in this camp, but somehow we have been lead to this really needy place.
24th January 2000
We now have a working base in the affected area. There is a hotel there
that has been used as a working base for several groups such as the team of
the Cuban doctors, the Spanish Red Cross, the people from the state and
others. We were able to get a permanent place there too ("until turism
starts again" which may take a while as they have no running water).
A few weeks ago we started our relief effort filling up bottles of 20
liters with water in our house, and driving it three hours to the affected
area, about 300 liters each time we went. Now we have a truck, bought a few
water tanks and today we delivered 3000 liters of drinking water. We expect
to deliver about 6000 liters every day. We will specially concentrate on
small isolated communities that are not receiving water (or not enough), of
which there are many. The need for drinking water is not getting less, it
is becoming more. It has continued to rain for the last few weeks and most
people were able to get their drinking water from there. Now the rain has
stopped. The situation of many people could become quite desperate.
We talked to the mayor of San Jose (where we work) about our work. He was
pleased with our effort. We also work together with the local priest, who
showed which communities in particular need help, and with a group of
wonderful local people who since the disaster have made a study and a
census of most communities affected. Without them we wouldn't be able to do our work. They expect it will take
two years before the water situation will be as it was before. Looks like
we will be busy for a while.
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