As I mentioned in my Happy Easter post - I am long overdue in writing an update to this blog. Here is just a quick catch up of the events that have been going on in my life and work here in Peru.
- Since the beginning of January, my awesome coworkers Wilda and Jorge have been working and living in Chincha. Wilda has helped to organize three community centers in areas that prior to the earthquake had little community organization. Each community center has volunteers from the community (mothers, and a few teenagers), who offer activities every day for children in the community - activities that allow these children to play, laugh and learn, in order to help them move beyond the trauma of the earthquake and difficulties of living in the midst of rubble and tents. The project has also gained an incredible psychologist who loves the Lord, and has been helping to train the community volunteers and other parents in order that they would be able to begin to better meet some of the psychological and social needs of the children in their own community. This project is a huge blessing to the children and the communities as you can see in pictures above.
- At the beginning of February FH-Peru received approval for funding from the Canadian government for a 6 month training and reconstruction project. Most families are still without any permanent housing (still living in temporary shelters or tents). While most families do not want to rebuild using adobe (mud bricks that do not stand up well to earthquakes), the costs of other more seismic resistant materials such as brick, concrete and rebar are out of reach for most families. Our project will provide training to 60 people in how to build with adobe that is reinforced with a plastic mesh so that the home can withstand future earthquakes. In the process of the training about 25 model homes will be built to provide more permanent housing to vulnerable families (single mothers and the elderly) with great need. The aim of the project is that the 60 individuals trained will be able to earn a living by providing technical assistance to families who are rebuilding (the government of Peru is giving a small fund to each family to purchase building materials).
I know that to many of you (especially those with whom I have not been able to share with regularly) these activities may not seem very personal. However each of them has required much of my time and work: writing proposals, traveling back and forth from Lima to Chincha (a 3 hour bus trip each way), running around to purchase equipment and supplies for working with the children, managing budgets, countless meetings with other NGOs and government officials to coordination and collaborate reconstruction efforts, and lots of time supporting the staff in the field in Chincha, as well as visiting with and listening to the needs and concerns of community members. And PRAYER - none of what I or FH is doing is done on our own - it is done by the grace of God, and requires a covering of prayer. Please continue to pray for me and the other FH staff - that we would be able to accomplish the work laid out before us in a way that uplifts and encourages the communities we serve, and also honors the Lord. Please continue to pray for the families in the communities we serve, and for all of the families who continue to be affected by the earthquake from last August.
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