RE: Guatemalan relief effort

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Wesenberg, Nancy Christine (WESENBNC@uwec.edu)
Thu, 20 Oct 2005 11:22:43 -0500



Subject: RE: Guatemalan relief effort
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 11:22:43 -0500
Message-ID: <376546015E56D640AB10F112B8127DDF029A40DA@PEPSI.uwec.edu>
From: "Wesenberg, Nancy Christine" <WESENBNC@uwec.edu>

Donna, I'm working with Fabiola on a press release, but it sounds like many of the activities are still in the planning stages and will be ongoing. Are you planning to devote Web space to this effort on the SFPJ Web page? My release will have to be more general, but it would be nice if I could direct people to check a particular Web page for information on fundraising activities as they get finalized. Alternately, would you have that info on the Foreign language department Website, Fabiola? Thanks. Nancy Wesenberg

-----Original Message----- From: sfpj-request@listserve.uwec.edu
[mailto:sfpj-request@listserve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of Raleigh, Donna M. Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 1:32 PM To: sfpj@listserve.uwec.edu Cc: Varela-Garcia, Fabiola Subject: Guatemalan relief effort

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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