Subject: Guatemalan relief effort Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 13:32:15 -0500 Message-ID: <FEBBF51AFF7B8B4B8A2F32F6E63092AE02BB8BF3@COKE.uwec.edu> From: "Raleigh, Donna M." <draleigh@uwec.edu>
All,
I am forwarding this message from Fabiola Varela-Garcia in our Foreign
Languages Department. Fabiola is coordinating a relief effort for the
Guatemalan people suffering from the hurrican destruction. Below you
will see the possibilities she and the students have brainstormed. If
you can help in anyway, including organizing or participating in one of
these events, it is much appreciated.
Although it says no help is needed for the bake sale tomorrow, a
donation of baked goods and/or purchasing baked goods will help. You can
take the baked goods to Fabiola's office in HHH 375 or to my office in
Schofield 30.
Please direct other questions directly to Fabiola. Fabiola, now that you
have the address of the listserv, can you send us details as they emerge
for the various events?
Thanks for your help, everyone!
Donna
________________________________
From: Varela-Garcia, Fabiola
Sent: Wed 10/19/2005 11:54 AM
To: Raleigh, Donna M.
Subject: RE: Guatemala Un poco mas
Donna,
Could it be possible to get this info around and maybe get some extra
help?
Gracias
Bake Sales in Davies:
- Thur. Oct. 20 (11-1) : No one is needed
- Sat Oct. 22 Parents Dinner, ask for donations (Holly Moe, Fabiola
Varela-Garcia)-
Sun. Oct. 23 (8:30-11:30) Ask for donations. (Amy, Abby)
Door to Door Dorm Fundraising: (Leaders: Corynn and Becca)
* Walk around your dorm or any dorm if you're living off campus, explain
the situation in Guatemala. Ask the residents for their loose change or
an extra dollar to help out.
Run for Guatemala:
*A 'fun run' will be held the weekend before Thanksgiving. We will
raise money by collecting entrance fees and also by asking
family/friends to sponsor us and pay a certain amount of money per mile
we run.
Business Donations:
-A letter will be written and sent out to local businesses in the Eau
Claire area, explaining the situation in Guatemala, who we are, and
asking for donations.
-Two weeks after the letter is sent we will need to go around to the
different businesses and do a personal follow-up, collect donations
El Patio Night
-Contact El Patio about donating a certain percentage of the earnings
for the night to help people in Guatemala. We could offer to serve food
if it was a buffet style, help out, etc.
Elementary Schools:
-Have children in schools you are connected to do 'Supply Drives',
bringing in as many pencils, glue, paper, school supplies as they can
-Have a Salsa dancing night at the school, charge fee to get in? Invite
parents as well?
International Folk Festival: Emily
-Set up a donation booth in the room where SOL and LAS has their groups?
-make food to sell?
Benefit Concert:
-Throw a concert somewhere and charge a cover to raise money for people
in Guatemala
Two to Tango:
-Ask if one of their events at Higherground could somehow raise money?
Entrance fee or donation bucket?
Trick or Treating:
-set up a table in Hibbard or davies and sell candy for money (Karen,
Sarah, Holly)
-Go around from house to house, asking for donations instead of candy
(Emily)
*Make sure that you are informed and look professional! Perhaps a group
of us will go trick or treating together?
Fabiola Varela Garcia
Spanish Section
Foreign languages Department
University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire
________________________________
________________________________
From: Varela-Garcia, Fabiola
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 10:15 AM
To: Raleigh, Donna M.
Subject:
Dear Donna,
I hope you remember me.
I am the Spanish faculty at Forlang whom you helped out with the D2
Learn program
need your help, please.
This terrible hurricane has badly damaged Guatemala.
Could you and/or the Peace and Justice Program help me to put forth some
relief efforts to help Guatemalan indigenous villages of Santiago
Atitlan and Tecpan. Thare are other ones in need too,but these 2 are in
the worst conditions.
Please.
Thanks very much
Fabiola
I spent 5 years working in Guatemala and moved just a month ago. Have
contact to make help get there
Guatemalan Villages Turn to Mud
Hundreds Dead or Missing in Wake of Hurricane Stan
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 9, 2005; Page A01
At least 500 people have died in Guatemala, and hundreds more remained
missing and feared dead, in a wave of mudslides and heavy rains over the
past week that have devastated parts of the country in the wake of
Hurricane Stan and left entire villages buried in mud, according to
reports from officials and rescue workers in the region.
There were also reports that between 1,200 and 1,400 people might have
been killed in a single massive mudslide early Wednesday in the
Guatemalan village of Panabaj. A fire brigade official in the village
told the Reuters news agency Friday that no survivors were left after
torrential rains dropped a suffocating wall of mud onto the hillside
community of 250 houses.
Flooded Central America Hit by Quake
<https://webmail.uwec.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.washingto
npost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/07/AR2005100701886.html>
SAN SALVADOR -- A moderate earthquake rocked Central America on Friday,
causing the collapse of a rain-damaged highway bridge in Guatemala and
sending thousands of frightened Salvadoran residents into the streets.
Photos
Guatemalan Village Destroyed by Mudslide
Hundreds are feared dead as rescuers remove bodies from mudslide
triggered by Hurricane Stan.
<https://webmail.uwec.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.washingto
npost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2005/09/23/CU2005092301101.html>
<https://webmail.uwec.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.washingto
npost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/special/7/index.html>
Whatever its ultimate death toll, the destruction of Panabaj, perched on
the slopes below volcanic Lake Atitlan, appeared to be the worst single
episode in a week of devastating weather that has punished Central
America with rain, floods, landslides and an earthquake.
The National Agency for Disaster Control in Guatemala City reported
Saturday that 508 people were confirmed dead nationwide and at least 337
were missing, according to La Hora newspaper in the capital. The center
said that more than 100,000 people in 421 communities had been affected
by the calamity, and that 89,000 had been taken to shelters. They also
said 118 settlements remained unreachable.
The new reports of casualties dramatically increased the regional death
toll from problems related to the hurricane, which has flooded large
areas of land and dumped mud on dozens of villages in Central America
and Mexico. By Friday, 241 people were reported to have died in several
days of heavy weather, including a 5.5 magnitude earthquake that struck
just off the coast of El Salvador Friday.
The death toll from landslides and flooding in El Salvador was at least
67; the toll was 14 in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua, but the
details were still sketchy today. In Mexico, heavy rains battered the
country's Gulf Coast after Hurricane Stan came ashore there Tuesday and
moved across several southern states, causing at least 15 storm-related
fatalities.
Officials in the Guatemalan village of Panabaj, on the slopes of Toliman
Volcano in the picturesque Santiago Atitlan region, told the Guatemalan
newspaper Century 21 that the village had "disappeared" before dawn
Wednesday, possibly leaving up to 1,200 dead, when tons of mud engulfed
its 250 houses. The region of lakes and mountain vistas attracts many
foreign tourists, but it is also home to hundreds of impoverished Mayan
villages.
Mayor Diego Esquina Mendoza told the newspaper Friday that 117 bodies
had been recovered, 700 people had been rescued and more than 1,000 were
still missing.
Hundreds of firefighters, soldiers, survivors and other rescue workers
were described as digging through thick slabs of mud with hoes, machetes
and pick axes to reach victims buried in their houses, but most rescuers
did not reach the scene until 48 hours after the slide.
A teacher in the village, Manuel Gonzalez, told Reuters, "there are no
children left, there are no people left." The dead were quickly buried
in mass graves and survivors were taken to shelters, officials said.
Survivors said they were awakened by a roaring sound and thought at
first the nearby volcano was erupting, the Associated Press reported.
Instead, they said, a massive wall of mud, rocks and trees descended
from the slopes above and buried the community within minutes.
In the nearby lakeside tourist town of Santiago Atitlan, piles of
homemade coffins were brought to cemeteries to await burial, while
villagers dug for more bodies with hand tools, according to the
Associated Press. Municipal officials said entire families had
disappeared. The front page of La Hora, a national newspaper, Saturday
showed a crowd hoisting crude wooden coffins on poles.
Many other areas of the country were affected by the heavy rains that
have pummeled the region all week. Guatemala's minister of
communications, Eduardo Castillo, said 400 landslides had occurred,
causing damage to 11 bridges and 25 per cent of the country's paved
roadways.
Officials said 30 percent of agricultural land had been affected. The
country is a major producer of coffee, and its economy is chiefly
agricultural. The ministry of agriculture reported that sugar, cocoa,
corn, coffee, beans, rice and vegetable crops had been damaged or
destroyed in half a dozen provinces.
Officials said the devastation was much worse than Guatemala had
experienced in 1998 during Hurricane Mitch, which left 268 people dead
across the country and 110,000 homeless. The total death toll from Mitch
in other parts of Central America was much higher, however, reaching
more than 10,000.
Fabiola Varela Garcia
Spanish Section
Foreign Languages Department
University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire
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