Assistance provided to affected communites

After being hit by heavy rains of November 7th, which killed almost two hundred people and destroyed around 10,000 homes, SHARE put out the word that emergency relief was needed and that we would be fundraising to provide immediate and long term assistance to those affected communities. We were overwhelmed by the generous response of individuals, groups and entire communities in the States who wanted to provide assistance to those suffering from the loss of their homes and of their loved ones. We would like to thank all those who have contributed and continue to contribute to those affected by the heavy rains. From the donations that we have collected we have been able to contribute support four different regions of the country. In La Paz, we worked through the organization ISD to give $5,000 for mattresses, bed sheets and blankets, and food packets. In San Martin we were able to give $5,000 to the organization REDES in order to buy personal hygiene packets to affected families. In Aguilares and El Paisnal we worked through our long time sistering counterpart UCRES to provide $7,000 to buy stoves and gas tanks. And in Southern La Libertad we worked with CORDES and CRIPDES SUR to distribute $5,000 worth of mattresses, bed sheets and blankets and food packets.

SHARE would like to thank especially thank two groups actually volunteered their time to come to El Salvador to hand out some of the money they fundraised. One group of those groups, that we would like to thank, is the Salvadoran American Community from Washington D.C. who raised a substantial amount of money for their affected brothers and sisters and sent a delegation to El Salvador to help administer part of those donations. We were lucky enough to spend a day with them on November 24th, as they handed out ninety-eight packets of food and water to the families of San Carlos 1 in the municipality of San Pedro Masahuat, department of La Paz.

The other group that we were lucky to accompany was CRECEN and America para Todos from Houston, Texas. A delegation from their group joined us on December 5th to first accompany SHARE to CRIPDES and CORDES South in La Libertad to pass out mattresses, bed sheets and food packets to 177 affected families in the communities of San Diego and Santa Cruz. We then travelled to CORDES UCRES in Aguilares and El Paisnal for the group to distribute stoves to 140 families. The mayor of Aguilares contributed to the donation by including a tank of gas with each stove given out.