Earthquake Update from Union Biblica

In the wee hours of the night - we received an update from our friends and long term collaborative partners Union Biblica. The message, written by the Director of Union Biblica del Peru Paul Clark and his wife Marty, is pasted below:

"Dear friends all over the world!

How grateful we are for friends like you! During the past 24 hours, we have received more than 60 e-mails asking for news and assuring us of your prayers. We have also received phone calls from 10 of you who were able to make connection. We know that several others tried to no avail. The phones are working for periods of time and then they are cut again. We want to assure you that we personally along with Phoebe, our granddaughter, are safe as well as Billy, our son, and his family. It was quite frightening at the time as it lasted for 2 minutes which is quite long for an earthquake. Since then we have had dozens of aftershocks (tremors). All schools were closed today and Peru, especially from Lima towards the south to Ica, has been declared in a state of emergency.

The epicenter of the 8.0 earthquake that we experienced at 6:40 p.m. yesterday (August 15) was near the city of Pisco (100 plus miles south of Lima), along the Nazca Fault Line that runs along our Pacific Coast. It is estimated that 80% of the city was destroyed. The death count has passed the 500 mark and is steadily rising.

Some of you will remember Ica, the city in the dry desert where water is always scarce. Today, with the old pipelines shattered, there is no water. God has blessed us with one of the few wells in Ica. We have opened the gates and people are coming in to fill their pails with water from our pool. There is no electricity in the town at this time, so we cannot activate the 150 foot deep well. Once we can, we'll keep the water flowing. Our 5 Ica camp tents are being used by S.U. volunteers whose houses have collapsed. No damage was done to any of our buildings that are under construction for a new street boys' home and campsite.

The bridge between Lima and Ica has collapsed and meager help is therefore slow to get through. Our local news is full of pictures of people in the rubble beside dead bodies, quite lost as to knowing what to do. Having asked ourselves 'what would Jesus do?', we have decided to give away our Kawai tents, used in our camping season (Jan.-Mar) People out in the open, need help now. Marco Cordova (Ica staff worker) will receive them from us at the bridge and assures us he can get them over to those who need them.

Jose Principe (Pepe) is our staff worker in Arequipa. He is safe, but huge, thick adobe walls crashed in his home near Ica.

Several of you have asked about Kawai. Rosa, Raul and the 30 abandoned boys, some of them badly frightened, gathered in front of Casa Girasoles to sing and pray. Our Lord quieted them. No major damage was done there.

Abdon and Hermenegilda's house will have to be torn down. Severely damaged, it was on the verge of collapsing. This poses an immense financial problem for us. They have been moved to Villa Margarita for the moment.

Sadly, parts of the stained glass window of the Kawai Chapel is broken. But, we praise God for no loss of life.

40 feet of the southern boundary wall fell down and will have to be rebuilt.

We do not yet know the condition of the 48 schools we work in throughout that area nor details of the four and a half thousand children who are in our Christian Value classes.

Last minute: even as this letter is being written, Linda (our schools National Director) phoned in tears. Those of you who have worked in the schools near Kawai and Mala, will remember Alan, our staff worker. He lives with his sister, mother and grandmother in Chincha. Their house is now completely gone - a mound of earth and broken adobes covering their belongings. Linda and Moises, her husband, will leave tomorrow at 6 a.m. taking with them some supplies and particularly water, of which Alan has none. They, like others, have not had water for more than 24 hours now.

Many of you asked: What can we do? What do you need? Let us know how we can help. I would like to be of assistance if I can from this distance. Can we help? Anything we foreign supporters can do to help? Please let us know if we can help in anyway. Please let us know of any additional needs.

So, we have made a list that you might be able to help towards. Obviously, you cannot send blankets, warm clothing, nor food which is being collected here in Lima through some of the churches and civic organizations . . . but, at this moment, we need:

* House for Abdon (good construction, not adobe) $20,000.
* Help for Alan $5,000
* 30 tents for Kawai to replace those being given @$90 each
* 40 ft. of wall @$40 per ft. $1,600

Donations from the U.K. can be sent to S.U. (scripture Union) England for their Peru account earmarked for the project you would like to participate in. From the U.S., a personal check can be made out to Union Biblica del Peru and sent to:

Union Biblica del Peru
% Paul Clark
Apartado 3159
Lima 1, Peru

The check needs to state in the memo section how you want it used.

We have a work team from S.U. England in Kawai until Saturday. The Oak Hall (England) team that arrived last night spent their first day in Chosica due to the road to Kimo being covered with rocks and debris. They have been clearing it today and tomorrow, the bus will take off with the group of 23 for the jungle. Another team from New York is in Kusi, so the work goes on in the midst of earthquakes!! "

As more information is made available, HBI will post updates to this Blog. Once again, please join me in praying for the people of Peru. They must know that they are not alone!

Pray for the People of Peru

Over 24-hours have elapsed since the initial reports of a devas-tating earthquake In Peru reached the Internet airwaves. I was sitting in our kitchen with a young Peruvian physician (visiting Portland with his U.S. medical student girlfriend) - when a casual perusal of the Google News web page turned into a marathon run of information gathering (please note: the picture shown in this Blog post is credited to Sergio Urday/European Pressphoto Agency and appeared in the New York Times on-line news source).

Ernesto and I listened to web-casts and phoned family and friends in Lima until we were satisfied that we had gathered enough information to know that what we were seeing and reading on web based news pages was accurate and "real." He and I both prayed that his family and all of our beloved friends in Lima and Peru were safe and unharmed.

Now - one day later - as more news is percolating from the southern Peru cities of Canete, Mala, Ica and Pisco, the true impact of the event is starting to sink-in. For these barren coastal communities, where HBI and the Christ Church Parish of Lake Oswego, Oregon have worked for over 10 years, are some of the poorest communities in Peru. The devastation and destruction they have experienced will be particularly hurt-felt to there economies and the future prosperity of the region.

Most of the reported dead were in the Ica region, which emergency workers said appeared to be the area that was hardest hit. Many people were killed in the rubble of their homes, and some 300 people were in a famous Ica cathedral when it collapsed under the tremendous strain of the immense quake. Many more people were, in a flash of second, made homeless and financially destitute. Emergency workers have said that the overall death toll from the earthquake might be even greater than initial assumed. As many news agencies have pointed out on there Internet news pages - it is too early to tell how "crippling" this tragedy will be to Peru.

In addition to the killed and injured, the Peruvian Center of Emergency Operations for Civil Defense has gone on record as saying that more than 16,500 people have been displaced or otherwise affected by the earthquake. Having spent a significant amount of my time in Peru in this southern corridor of communities, I am particularly impacted to know that this desperately impoverished region has been hit with yet another tragedy. I know that the resourcefulness and dedication of the Peruvian people will allow them to re-build their lives after this tragic event; and, I also know that it seems enormously unfair that an area that has already suffered through so much should have to deal with such a great disaster.

I will pray tonight that the people of Peru know that they are not alone. I will pray that God will bless and comfort these beautiful communities as they only just begin to come to terms with the devastation that has unfolded before them.

Health Bridges International will continue to work with Union Biblica del Peru in the communities of Mala, Asia and Ica - in fact, it appears that our most important work has just begun.

The Death Toll and Devastation Continue to Increase

Latest updates as reported by Reuters News Agency and the BBC indicate that over 450 Peruvian's have lost their lives in the tragic magnitude-8 earthquake. The quake has devastated Southern cities on the coast - cities who have a primary construction material of adobe and brick.

It has been reported that survivors wearing blankets against the winter cold walked like ghosts through the ruins. The United Nations reports that dozens of bodies lay beneath bloodstained sheets at damaged hospitals where doctors are struggling to help more than 1,500 injured victims of crush injuries and quake related trauma. Reports from the Forbes Website indicate that hundreds of patients are being "staged" on cots and in walkways outside the hospitals in the coastal cities, fearing more aftershocks would send the structures crashing down.

The center of the destruction was in Peru's southern desert - specifically in the oasis city of Ica (a community where Union Biblica del Peru has a orphanage and mission camp). The coastal port of Pisco, about 125 miles southeast of the capital, Lima, was also strongly impacted by the quake and the after tremors. Humanitarian relief and aid is being carried out by OxFam, the International Red Cross and the Peruvian Governments Disaster Relief Teams. Physicians, nurses and health care professionals have been bused to the southern cities of Ica and Pisco to help with patient care and community stabilization.

It is not known at this time how many lives have been lost in this tragic event - but one thing is certain, the people of Peru need our warm wishes and prayers . . . now more than ever.

Earthquake Update

As the death toll continues to rise in one of the largest earthquakes in Latin American history (recently upgraded to 8.0), word from our friends in Mala is quite good - please see below:

Marty Clark from Union Biblica del Peru writes - "the 30 boys along with Rosa and Raul are fine at Kawai. Frightened, but safe. Abdon's house is quite cracked and with another hard shake might fall down. Tomorrow, we will go and find out. We THINK that Alan's house in Chincha fell, but we need to confirm that. Pepe (another school's worker) lost 2 walls of his house. We are trying to find out about Ica, but the phone lines are down in many places...so we don't know too much."

Word from Arequipa and the Alto Cayma project is also good. Jim Hintz reports - "I know that many of you are worried about the earthquake that occurred in southern Peru yesterday evening. Fortunately for us in Arequipa, we felt it but it didn't do any major damage. Telephone and internet service was affected, however, so I couldn't respond to any messages last night. As you know, the quake was centered near Ica, which is between here and Lima but much closer to Lima, and the damage there was much greater even than in Lima. We have visitors, Bob and Betty Edelen, who are headed this way, but they had not left the States at the time the quake hit."

Please continue to keep our friends and the people of Peru in your thoughts and prayers. More information to follow.

Earthquake Rocks Coastal Towns of Peru

A reported 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Peru (just south of Lima the capital city) on the evening of August 15 as Limenos prepared to go home from work. The quake, the largest to strike L. America in decades is reported to have killed hundreds and injured thousands. Many more Peruvians have been displaced from their homes in areas outside of Lima and in the cities of Pisco, Chincha and Ica.

HBI works in collaboration with our Peruvian partner Union Biblica just north of the town of Ica. Union Biblica, a faith based social service organization, runs a home for homeless boys and a camp for community development just outside of the town of Mala. At this hour no information is available regarding the Union Biblica Kawai property or the damage experienced in the town of Mala.

As more information is made available, HBI will post updates on our partner organizations and the Peruvian people who are so dear to our hearts. Please keep the people of Peru in your thoughts and prayers.

Outreach Trip In October

Health Bridges International will be leading a small team to the District of Ancash in northern Peru during the month of October of 2007. We will be partnering with Union Biblica del Peru to bring outreach medical services to a small orphanage for homeless boys. Our clinic will be run in partnership with Peruvian physicians and a local public school.

If you are a physician (primary care - IM, FP, Peds, Gyn) - please request further information, by contacting us at info@HBInt.org

The Carabayllo Project

For the past four years HBI has been working with a small community in the northern Lima district of Carabayllo. Carbayllo is a sprawling "pueblos jovenes" that includes over 1 million people - many of whom are living in desperate poverty. A great number of the residents of Lomas de Carabayllo survive on less than $2.00 (USD) per day.

Their primary source of income is the recycling of garbage and industrial waste. A major issue facing the community is the open pit incineration of industrial plastics and automobile batteries. Through the liberation of lead in the incineration process, many of the children living in the Lomas de Carabayllo area have suffered extensive adverse health affects (see: http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?IssCode=&lanCode=1&artCode=4729). Overwhelmingly, the greatest need is a more formal plan for reducing the amount of lead exposure and intoxication. Equally compelling is the need for a more concerted treatment and laboratory tracking program in the community.

HBI has worked with the community of Valle Sagrado in Carabayllo to address the issues of lead exposure and illness - today, the community is free of open pit incineration andsoil contamination. Treatment and surveillance programs have been initiated by government sponsored programs. And the people of Valle Sagrado are working to build a more sustainable mechanism for employment and community development.

In June of 2007, HBI helped to bring desperately needed winter clothing to over 140 children living in Valle Sagrado. Locally purchased track suits and warm weather clothing were distributed to every child in the community as per the request of community leaders. Future outreach and program development in Carabayllo will be directed by the community and their self selected leaders. Our goal in working with the community of Carabayllo is to help them reach their stated goals through building "bridges" to resources and needed infrastructure.