Return to Chincha

Judging by the aching in my every muscle and the sheer exhaustion that turned me into a zombie at the office on Monday, my body has atrophied after six years of sitting in front of a computer for ten hours a day. I was back in Chincha on Saturday and Sunday to assist the good citizens of that destroyed town. The trip was organised by the same lot with whom I went three weeks ago. On the one month anniversary of the earthquake there were far fewer volunteers heading south from Lima; 70 vs 650. A good deal was achieved nonetheless. Saturday was a similar exercise to the last trip, conducting a census. We, my two female charges and I, were entrusted with a map covering a square mile or so which marked the locations of the known communal kitchens in the area. Communal kitchens are being set up either by NGOs or by groups of locals. Anywhere between 5 and 40 families might congregate around one of these kitchens to get their food. It's vitally important for the local authorities to know where these kitchens are located so that when food aid does arrive, they aren't wandering around aimlessly trying to find them, or worse, overlooking the kitchens because they don't know they even exist.

This is where we came in. Armed with the map we went in search of all the kitchens already marked on the map, to ensure they were where the map indicated (which in three out of four cases they weren't so good thing we checked), and to find any new ones which had sprung up in the week or two since the last party conducted this exercise. We found seven more on top of the original four so all in all, a good afternoon's work. In addition we brought the kitchens' organisers important information on registering with the authorities and making sure they continually check in with them. In an ideal world, this wouldn't be necessary, but when resources are scarce, you have to make sure that those in charge of distribution aren't forgetting about you. The harsh realities on the ground.

My several visits down south, as well as conversations with interested parties back in Lima, have demonstrated beyond a doubt how crucial it is to have people in charge of aid and rescue efforts who know what they're doing. Who have experience. Who understand the minutiae which can disrupt the best-laid plans. Who are people managers. And perhaps most important of all, who display a grasp of common sense and good judgement. I'm reminded of the man at the helm of the US agency FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) when Hurricane Katrina hit the south coast of the US in 2005. Michael Brown, lawyer. He was relieved of his duties nine days into the response effort for extreme incompetence. Prior experience: Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association, 1989 to 2001. Chairman of the Board of the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, 1982 to 1988. Clearly the man for the job.

Our task on the Sunday was of a different order. Helping some families clear rubble from their houses and into the street so that it could be taken away by the roaming loaders sent by the government. Our team of twelve was a model of productivity. Getting in and out of our chosen house with a wheelbarrow was impossible, so we formed a human chain to pass the adobe bricks out of the house, over the wall which we partly demolised to accomplish this. The volume of debris we removed in just a few hours was both impressive in terms of mass and saddening in terms of drop-in-the-ocean insignificance of outcome. We cleared half of one house. It showed both how much can be achieved through coordinated teamwork (the same process had been used several times over the weekend to load and unload trucks back at base camp with similar military efficiency) and what an immense effort lies ahead to rebuild Chincha, Pisco and Ica. That thought however hasn't prevented the pain and fatigue brought on by this sudden laborious shock to my system feeling very satisfying indeed.

More pictures at Picasa.

An introduction to microfinance

Whilst Comunion Peru's excellent work to help earthquake victims continues, I unfortunately don't have any major successes to report. At last count we had opened eight communal kitchens in the areas around Chincha, Pisco and Ica. I'll be heading back down to Chincha this weekend with Movimiento de Vida Cristiana to pack boxes of food, clothes and so on and to distribute them. This organisation has also been doing sterling work, including organising a concert on Saturday by a major international classical pianist (who I'd never heard of; more a comment on my knowledge of classical music than his level of fame I suspect) all receipts from which will go to their earthquake fund.

I'd like to say thank you to those who have either donated money to Comunion Peru's efforts or are engaging in efforts to fundraise on our behalf. It is truly appreciated and I can assure you every penny goes to relieve suffering and help people who need it.

I'm posting a video produced by Five Talents and starring the UK Director Tom Sanderson (oddly flirting with a South African accent during the radio interview) and Charles Eve, a Five Talents Trustee and Co-head of EMEA Compliance at Goldman Sachs. It was the latter of these two gentlemen who started the ball rolling towards my eventual employment with Five Talents and secondment to ECLOF Peru.

This blog is supposed to be geared towards explaining the ins and outs of microfinance, but for good reason has been diverted to discussion of the earthquake. In anticipation of my first post on microfinance, provisionally entitled Microfinance 101, this video is a good introduction to the topic and although filmed in Uganda the realities, views and ideas observable and expressed therein give a good feel for the issues I will raise later.

Give me the map

Since Peru does not yet appear on Google maps and since I'm sure most people's knowledge of Peruvian cities and towns doesn't extend much beyond Lima, Cuzco, Arequipa and Iquitos at best (mine didn't extend at all past knowing that Lima was the capital until March this year), I'm attaching a map of the region I've been talking about to give some geographical context. Pueblo Nuevo (near Chincha Alta) and San Juan Bautista (near Ica) are the two areas I've been working in, both circled.

This map was drawn up by the Instituto Geofisico del Peru and interestingly shows where the epicentre of the original earthquake and subsequent tremors were located. It's clear from the map why Pisco and surrounds were the towns worst affected by the earthquake, suffering the lion's share of the fatalities and structural damage. It was in Pisco that the church collapsed during mass, killing 148 people, more than a quarter of the total number of deaths reported so far for all of Peru following the earthquake.

Please click on the map for a larger view.

The suffering doesn't let up

Last week I was working with a third NGO called Comunion Peru (in case you missed the first two, please see blog entry of 10th August), started by the Anglican Bishop of Peru, William Godfrey. Comunion Peru has set up eight kitchens (so far) in the regions of Chincha, Pisco and Ica where the earthquake had its most devastating effect. My main goal has been to raise funds to keep these kitchens, and the additional ones we plan to open, supplied with food to keep them running and to keep the citizens of the surrounding communities fed.

The situation the people of San Juan Bautista, where I was on Friday night delivering storage sheds to three of our kitchens, and Pueblo Nuevo, where I was last weekend, find themselves in is desperate. When your house collapses, you don't just lose a place to live, a safe place to sleep, a place to congregate, a place to cook, a place to wash, a place to be. You lose most of your possessions. They get buried, crushed, smashed or just lost. The money you make which in normal times goes primarily to feed and clothe the family, to pay the lighting and water bills and in miniscule amounts, if there's any left over, to a little home improvement, suddenly is required to pay for new everythings. Plates, glasses, forks, knives, spoons, cups, beds, blankets, clothes, lights. There's no insurance policy. Even if you could afford it, who's going to provide contents insurance against an earthquake for houses built of mud brick lying near a major fault line, or if you could find that person, how could you afford the necessarily stratospheric premiums?

The kitchens which Comunion Peru (and others) have set up and are setting up provide a small amount of relief to people from the overwhelming challenges they now face, one less thing they need to worry about. All are looking to their government for help. And millions of dollars have already been earmarked for reconstruction by President Alan Garcia. When this will begin however is anyone's guess and in the interim, life must go on. The only visible contribution the government is making to this end thus far is to demolish the structurally unsafe houses and cart away the remains. In San Juan Bautista that duty falls to one man with a loader for what must be heading for 200 houses to be cleared (related article from El Comercio).

In the mean time, people are sleeping in tents or temporary straw shelters, visible in at least one of the photographs I took. On Friday night I passed the night in a tent in San Juan Bautista's main square, fully clothed all the way to my jacket in a sleeping bag and I barely slept from the intense cold. I'll admit that I couldn't wait to get home to a warm shower and my bed. One of the ladies we spoke to last week, when we were conducting the census in Pueblo Nuevo, told us that the worst part about the nights was not the dark from lack of electricity, nor the cold, nor the uncomfortable sleeping conditions, but the screaming of children. Screaming out of fear of further tremors. Screaming out of suffering from the cold.