In the main square, amid music, great enthusiasm and joy, residents of Guarayos and affected families from the Bolivian Departments of Santa Cruz and Beni received three trailers filled with 75 tons of aid donations from the German government and channeled by World Vision to families hit by the devastation wrought by weather brought on by the El Niño effect.
Aid delivery was carried out in partnership with the country's foremost television network (the ATB Network), and three newspapers, and the event was broadcast nationwide in Bolivia, live from Guarayos, covering the entire trip (over seven hours) from departure in Santa Cruz to arrival in Guarayos.
Some of the families came from very remote places (still cut off from the outside due to the floods) to receive the shipment.
Twenty-six-year old Hilarion Rojas from Pedro Marban community in the municipality of San Andrés says that it took them eight hours to get to Guarayos because of the flooding, but it usually takes only three hours. He said that three kilometers (roughly two miles) of the road is now under water. "Our community wasn't flooded because it is situated on high ground, but we ended up living on somewhat of an island. We are completely surrounded by water. Everything that we planted has gone bad and some of our children have taken ill from bathing in tainted water," and they have no idea how supplies will make their way to them, because the only way to get there is by air or by water.
The shipment distributed on this occasion consists of food, hygiene kits, water drums, mosquito nets, water purifiers, and so on.
Mayor Robert Shuck of Guarayos, in Santa Cruz Department, and Mayor Wilson Zavala of San Andrés, in Beni Department, very thankfully received the donation, to be distributed to affected families in coordination with World Vision.
The Mayor of Guarayos expressed that this aid represented an incentive for them to begin developing people, and should not create a paternalistic situation, but instead it just represented aid to tide families over until they can get back on their feet.
François de la Roche, Regional Human Emergency Affairs Director for Latin America, expressed his gratitude to the German government and to all of the entities that pulled together to lend support to those most in need of urgent help to alleviate the situation that they are currently undergoing.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
