Dear Friends and Sponsors,
Here in San Lucas, we were not directly affected by the eruption of the Fuego volcano earlier this month.
The immediate reaction of the people after the tragedy was one of solidarity. Many people offered to collect items for the victims. All the secondary schools collected piles of tinned goods, toilet paper, diapers, packet foods, clothes, blankets and so on. Students from even the poorest families gave to help their brothers in need.
A local school was used as a storage center, and pickups and trucks sent from there, to ensure all the aid given reached its proper destination. As happened in AGATHA, as always happens, the poor people gave from their little, not expecting the government to do anything. Local banks opened special accounts to help those who lost their homes, and also received donations in kind, as did the town hall.
After the initial reaction, and after the wide publicity given to the eruption, various nonprofits also started to raise funds. The horrible way in which the victims died, and the fact that villages were completely wiped out, caught the plubic sympathy. The pictures of the families in temporary shelters encouraged both donations and allegations. There were allegations as politicians moved in, who was to blame that the families weren't evacuated before the eruption, the "best donations" not reaching the people, and so on. I spoke with a school director here who visited some of the emergency centers, and she told me of the conditions of the evacuees.
Our neighboring Central American counties sent trucks of emergency aid, which were turned back at the border because they hadn't been authorized. Initially, the President said he couldn't give a cent to help with the disaster, because it wasn't in the budget. A few months ago, he was in trouble over lavish personal expenses charged to the State, and there was widespread criticism of his remark.
Later Congressmen from neighboring countries gave a month's salary to help, and of course, the aid trucks were allowed in after a couple of days. And emergency help is in the budget, the President didn't know where to look. The International community has also promised help.
One NGO says it, " ...has a plan in place to rehabilitate and rebuild affected communities". One bank is sending donations for Rotary to distribute. This is all fine, and I'm sure Rotary will do a good job, but at the moment there seems to be no real co-ordination between government, International Aid, NGO's etc.
The volcano can be seen clearly from the villages of Pampojila and Panimaquip, just down the road from San Lucas. It is common to see it puffing away, and about once a year there have been eruptions. Perhaps once a year, the airport is closed for a few hours, because of the volcanic smoke/ash blowing over the airport area.
In 2010 tropical storm AGATHA caused mudslides, killing a thousand people when a village was wiped out in neighboring Santiago Atitlan, and killing several people living right under the hillside here in San Lucas. Then visitors asked, "Why do people live in such dangerous areas?". And of course, the answer is the same as in the recent volcano tragedy: poor people build homes where the land is cheapest.
I remain convinced that the way out of poverty is through education. For me, it will take time but is the only way out of the poverty cycle. This last two weeks I've been putting students on the waiting list for sponsorship, so that they can go on to secondary school next year. I am not going to jump on the bandwagon because of the tragedy of the eruption of Fuego volcano: if you are getting this email, you are already committed to helping the people here.
Thank you so much for that.
God bless you all,
Dennis