Coordinators: Natalia Bustos, Daniela Obreque, Javiera Obreque
Natalia is my good Chilean friend who has been helping me teach salsa dancing at Santa Lucía, a school for visually-impaired children in Santiago. She is completing her internship in pedagogy to become a Spanish professor. Daniela and Javiera are her fellow coordinators and two of her many close friends, currently university students in agronomy and nursing.
Let's Lift up the town of Los Coipos
Los Coipos is a small rural town located approximately 270 km south of Santiago, in the northeast interior of the municipality of Hualañe, (7th region, Chile), where 90% of the houses were left destroyed by the earthquake. This is a zone where the benefits of major aid organizations have been slow to arrive and an area with minimal resources and financial support. In response to the urgency in Los Coipos, Natalia and her friends started an autonomous project named, "Levantemos al pueblo de Los Coipos" or "Let's Lift up the town of Los Coipos".
Natalia invited me to join the project as soon as I arrived in Chile, one week after the earthquake. The group of volunteers include university students, friends, and family with the principal focus to assist small rural towns in the interior, the so-called, "forgotten" towns.
Our project's specific objective is to assist 80 families in Los Coipos who were victimized by the earthquake, in the following areas:
- Meeting urgent needs (food supplies, toiletries, and plastic tarps)
- Providing emotional support and entertainment
- Conducting a census to evaluate necessities and facilitate the distribution of aid
- Organizing the community to seek government funding and support
- Bringing in specialists to evaluate the houses in the region
- Aiding in the construction of temporary housing and resources for the reconstruction of the houses
We have been working in cooperation with the municipality (the mayor and the Emergency Coordinator for the municipality and the zone). We have also received support from Buses Díaz, the Federación de Estudiantes de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Rotary Club Reina Alta, Ayudando.com, and support from individual Chileans and foreigners.
What started as a small project has been growing steadily everyday, with more support and collaboration. Rotary Reina Alta has expressed interested in collaborating with Rotary International to invest in the construction of a school for the small towns surrounding Los Coipos. Within our network, another group is forming to assist the nearby small town of Barba Rubia, replicating the steps taken to help Los Coipos. Andrew Smith, a construction worker from England, has been living with a family in Los Coipos and working hard to help with reconstruction.
Ways to get involved:
- Providing transportation from Santiago to Hualañe (i.e. a minibus for the group of volunteers)
- Civil engineers and architects to evaluate houses and aid the reconstruction
- Volunteers to help conduct a census (door-to-door) and talk with the families to provide emotional support
- Manual labor: to help Andrew Smith with salvaging reusable materials (wood, beams, shingles, etc) before the rain arrives and preparing the terrain for the construction of temporary housing or the reconstruction of the houses; in the near future: help with the building of the temporary housing and the reconstruction of houses and schools
- Transport and materials for temporary housing or reconstruction
- If you are affiliated with Rotary, presenting this project at your local Rotary Club and asking if the Club would be interested in collaborating with the reconstruction of a school in Hualañe
- Initiate a similar project like this one in another locality in Chile in need of assistance. Just like Los Coipos, there are various other towns in the proximity and along the coast in the same situation and in need of help.
Contact me if you are interested in collaborating with our project...
Email: mssakhrani@yahoo.com with the Subject line: "Helping in Hualañe"
Support from Rotary Reina Alta in Santiago
Buying fresh eggs off the junction in Parronal
About a 4 and 1/2 hour trip from Santiago to Los Coipos
Hitchhiking the last leg to Los Coipos, 16 km of unpaved roads
Introducing the Project and volunteers to the community of Los Coipos
Meeting the leaders and community in Barba Rubia, a town next to Los Coipos
Small farmers applying for agricultural subsidies
Emergency Coordinator for Hualañe and Community Leader
Conducting a door-to-door census to evaluate the needs of the community
The school in Los Coipos destroyed
The youth in Los Coipos working with the volunteers,
measuring and cutting plastic tarps to distribute to the community
A 5 year-old girl with severe eczema all over her face and body. With the help of volunteer and nursing student, Carla Peréz, the little girl is now seeing a dermatologist (Dra. Saavedra, at the University of Chile in Santiago) who offered her services and medications free-of-charge. The girl and her mom are travelling from Curicó with discounted bus passes thanks to Buses Díaz.
Volunteers from Brazil, England, Colombia, Argentina and Chile
Natalia's mom making fresh bread
A bonfire, prayers, and a time to reflect with the community
80 boxes of food and necessities collected and donated by the Federación de Estudiantes de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Getting to know the teenagers in Los Coipos
The civil engineers and architects volunteering their expertise to evaluate the houses and explain to the homeowners their options for reconstruction
The municipality is cooperating with us and providing us transportation in Hualañe
The engineers, architects, and their assistants
Entertaining the community with dancing, singing, food, and games
The kids in Los Coipos spent all week preparing their choreographed dances for the show
Lolipops and chips for everyone
The bus ride home
Back to Santiago
