UPDATE FROM THE WEBSITE:
By World Vision staff
The town of Dichato was devastated.
Photo by Paula Saez.
©2010 World Vision International
World Vision staff began distributing food and relief supplies yesterday in towns hard-hit by Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunamis.
Following assessments Tuesday, staff from the Christian humanitarian organisation distributed water, food, blankets, diapers and other infant items in the town of Dichato, located about 40 miles north of Concepcion. The town was devastated by the dual disasters.
“In Dichato, there's nothing, nothing,” said Paula Saez, World Vision’s communications manager in Chile. “The damage is incredible because they have been hit twice – once with the earthquake and a second time with the tsunami. There is death everywhere: dead dogs in the street, dust, garbage. It’s devastated.”
Assessment teams reported that in part of the town, residents had only one source of clean water and that the Chilean military and firefighters were distributing water to community members.
World Vision sent additional trucks from Santiago today with additional food, water, diapers and other infant items for distribution later this week in Dichato and Lota, located 25 miles south of Concepcion.
“People need everything here,” said Saez. “Shelter, clothes, food. Everything else is gone or destroyed.”
World Vision is responding in Dichato.
Photo by World Vision staff.
©2010 World Vision International
“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” said Hans Guzman, a resident of Dichato, speaking to World Vision aid workers.
Guzman was living with his grandmother when the earthquake hit. While running to escape the tsunami, he tried to grab the hand of a woman running behind him, but the wave pulled her away and the woman disappeared. Guzman has not been able to reach his sister or mother in Talcahuano but he and his grandmother are safe.
World Vision staff are assessing the needs of residents who have moved into the hillsides for fear of more tsunamis.
World Vision is also preparing to establish Child-Friendly Spaces in Dichato. Child-Friendly Spaces are centres where children can enjoy activities such as music, theater and games in a structured and supervised environment.
The first Child-Friendly Space will likely focus on the 300 children under five years old in Dichato. Additional centres will focus on activities for older children.
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Chile: World Vision begins relief efforts
1 Mar 2010
By World Vision staff
World Vision began distributing hundreds of blankets and some water containers to Santiago's earthquake survivors over the weekend as it prepared to start an extensive response in the hardest hit areas south of the capital. Many of the communities where the aid group already works--including Lota City, Temuco, Concepcion and other areas in the Bio Bio region and the La Araucania region--were close to the devastating quake's epicentre.
Late Sunday, World Vision flew a team of six relief and logistics experts from Santiago to Concepcion to assess the severity of the damage and to verify the safety of staff and community members that have so far been cut off from communication or road access. The team will also open a second operations centre in the south to coordinate with the agency's relief teams in Santiago.
The Christian humanitarian organisation has prepositioned relief supplies in its Santiago warehouse, and plans to purchase additional high-priority supplies in country, including water tanks, water purification tablets, cooking items, hygiene kits, blankets and lanterns. These items will be rushed to communities in the Concepcion area as soon as air transport can be arranged. Meanwhile, the agency is working to bring in additional supplies from its regional warehouses, including one in La Paz, Bolivia.
In the five communities just outside Santiago where World Vision is responding, aid workers reported that many houses had collapsed completely, while others were still standing but too damaged for people to safely inhabit. There was no water or electricity service Sunday. Children were acting fearful of closed-in areas and hundreds of families were still sleeping on the streets, the relief teams reported. The start of the new school term has also been postponed because of expected structural damage to school buildings.
While the needs in areas south of the capital are expected to be far more critical, children and families in the Santiago region require food, first aid and hygiene kits, water, water containers, disposable diapers, plastic sheeting, candles, batteries, flashlights, blankets and sleeping bags, staff said. Survivors also need medical attention, damage evaluations of their homes and psychosocial support for children.
“We are extremely concerned about the emotional impact of so many aftershocks on children. Not only the physical needs, but the psychosocial needs of children in the quake zone will be a priority once the full extent of the needs are known and we can begin delivering much-needed supplies,” said Tatiana Benavides, World Vision's national director in Chile.
World Vision has worked in Chile for 30 years and has more than 100 staff in the country, reaching about 100,000 children and adults with education, microfinance, job training, and sustainable development programmes.
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