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Published: October 12th 2007
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Pisco church, October 2007
Had been the city's oldest church I got to Peru September 28th, and plan to stay until November 27th, traveling and volunteering at two sites. I will update the blog when I have good internet access..a sometimes thing. Some of you have seen emails with some of this content. I apologize for the repetition. (CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR BIGGER IMAGE.)
I spent most of my first 10 days in Peru working in Pisco, on the coast 2 hours south of Lima. It was recently nearly destroyed by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake. Here is a column I prepared on my experience for the Rocky Mountain News, daily newspaper in my hometown of Denver, Colorado.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/
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A great way to help in a disaster
Wednesday, October 17 at 12:00 AM
By Andrew Wallach, Denver
Like many people, I have looked on more than one occasion for a nongovernmental agency that uses volunteers and donations effectively and with a minimum of red tape to serve victims of international disasters. Fortunately, at least one individual, and since then hundreds of others, have found a way to respond quickly and meaningfully to urgent needs local communities themselves identify after disasters.
Hands On Disaster
Bri
A wonderful young Pisco resident who kept making freidns with volunteers, only to be crushed when they left. Relief, a small nonprofit agency based in Massachusetts, began work after the Christmas 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia. Hands On continued with an expanded operation in Biloxi, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina, then in the Philippines after a horrendous volcanic mudflow. Now they are responding very effectively to a catastrophic earthquake centered on the coastal Peruvian town of Pisco in coastal Peru.
Hands On is the ultra-pragmatic vision of David Campbell, a generous New England businessman, some like-minded friends, and now more than a thousand volunteers. Most everyone involved has now shoveled mud, cleared adobe or brick rubble that was once someone’s living room, or cleaned mold from flood-battered homes. Or they may have helped local UNICEF staff and contractors set up and staff safe play centers for children of newly homeless families, or decorated simple wooden toys that will be gifts for local children, or filled backpacks with school supplies.
In Pisco, a Hands On assessment team arrived 10 days after the Aug. 15 earthquake. Characteristically, they had already spent four days in the capital city of Lima learning about local resources and planning logistics. A few days later, Hands On staff had determined that volunteers could indeed
Typical Pisco work
Lucas, a great Australian voluntary with the strength and energy of multiple mortals. help Pisco’s 30,000 homeless families with rebuilding, that the local government welcomed assistance, and that safe quarters for the volunteers could be acquired.
On Sept. 8, three weeks after the quake, Hands On opened its center for Pisco volunteers.
Informality, flexibility and responsiveness are hallmarks of Hands On volunteer operations. Word-of-mouth and internet bulletin boards quickly brought notice of the Hands On effort to previous Hands On volunteers and to travelers in South America. By late September, more than 40 volunteers were working. A week later, more than 50 were on-site. After a couple of crowded nights, Hands On staff quickly acquired an additional facility.
Volunteers are provided, at no charge, work tools, bunks, showers, and three meals a day. Lunches and dinners are prepared by two local women, who also help with laundry. (Hands On’s food budget and meals are similar to those of local communities.) Housekeeping, dishwashing, facility maintenance and field supervision are provided by volunteers.
The benefits of Hands On work for volunteers are bountiful. The chance to work with local residents on demolition and simple construction projects they have requested is gratifying. Local residents frequently stop volunteers on the street to offer thanks and perhaps a
More relaxing work
Unicef donated hundreds of simple wooden toys for Pisco children. HODR volunteers sanded and decorated them. Though this looks like a posed shot with Abercrombie and Fitch (OK, maybe Patagonia) catalog models, it's not. For some reason, many of the HODR volunteers had that look about them. Maybe the beatific efffect of the work. shared beer.
Work can be physically challenging if volunteers so choose. Pisco offers piles of rubble to clear and haul, collapsed rural irrigation ditches to rebuild, and, for now, a few small and simple prefabricated homes to assemble on cleared sites.
But volunteers, who can choose new jobs each day, can elect less taxing work like the examples above. Recent volunteers have ranged from 20 to around 70 years of age. A typical Pisco volunteer is about 27.
Hands On plans on being in Pisco at least through January, with many more volunteers very likely. For more on volunteering there, and to learn of some remarkable gift-giving opportunities, see their HODR.org Web site.
One eloquent volunteer offering some farewell remarks paraphrased a favorite soccer player’s quote to describe Hands On: “Sometimes magic is little more than nothing.”
In the case of Hands On, the means may be simple but the results are remarkable.
Andrew Wallach (awallden@comcast.net) is a Denver resident temporarily living in the Peruvian Andes. He recently spent time volunteering with Hands On at their Pisco work site.
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