Aid Distribution Breakdown

BUDGET

Grace Bible Fellowship - $1,500.00 = S/. 4,500.00
Private Donations - $200.00 = S/. 600.00

TOTAL to be Allocated to Earthquake Victims - S/. 5,100.00

Christmas Celebration for the School:
Toys - S/. 985.00
Milk, Chocolate, Fruit Cake, Napkins, Cups - S/. 184.00
Wrapping Paper - S/. 11.50
School Supplies for classrooms/teachers - S/. 194.00

Fruit Cake and Hot Chocolate for Workers: S/. 151.00

Boat Reparation for Silenciario: S/. 1,350.00

Donation to Colegio Santa Maria for
Christmas Giving to the Children of Chincha - S/. 250.00

Additional School Supplies -

TOTAL ALLOCATED AS OF 3/13/2008: S/. 3,125.50

REMAINDER TO BE ALLOCATED: S/. 1,974.50


Plans for the remaining funds:
Acrylic Whiteboard for the School
Wooden Bookcase with lock for the School
New uniforms for the students

Gift Card

Here is a copy of the card that each child received. It says:

Grace Bible Fellowship is happy to celebrate the birth of Jesus with you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Merry Christmas!

From Grace Bible Fellowship, Tangent, Oregon, USA

Hot Chocolate and Fruit Cake, a Peruvian Tradition

Finding ways to responsibly spend donations isn't the easiest to do, especially when you are in a new place. What has been important to Gonzalo and me is that the recipients of the aid are working. Life is not easy here; it's not fair either, is it ever?

Close to where we live, there is a public school. To be quite honest, I didn't even realize it was a school; by merely looking at the facade you can't tell. The school has no electricity or running water. It is a primary school with three teachers, the principle serves as one of the teachers and the children are grouped into classes with several grade levels.

I was talking with a friend who wanted to do a Christmas charity for children and this school came to mind. We went to the school and talked to the Principle, we got a list of all the children and set a date. We bought a Christmas gift for each child, plenty of Italian style fruitcake (Paneton), and supplies to make hot chocolate. We recruited two more friends to help with the details, including buying the gifts and wrapping them. We used the donations for the gifts, fruitcake, and hot chocolate.

We (the moms) contributed a show to make the event livelier. The show facilitator had the children dancing and playing all sorts of games. The event raised the spirits of the children; they were so happy and excited. We (who organized) felt truly blessed to be the "distributors" of goodwill and the donations.

Click on the following images to enlarge them.

Thank you Grace Bible Fellowship

Meet Silenciario

About 20 years ago, Silenciario was forced to leave his birthplace of Ayacucho and find safer place along the coast of Peru. In the 1980’s, Peru was facing a bloody war against the Shining Path, a communist guerrilla which fought under the Marxism philosophy. The Shining Path made Ayacucho the heart of its ideology and the pivot for its expansion in Peru.
Silenciario comes from a farming family that lived in the Ayacuho countryside. There was a constant struggle with the Shining Path guerrilla and after years of “domination” the farmers decided to get together to join the Ronderos. The Ronderos were a type of paramilitary group where farmers became part of their own military to fight back the Shiny Path’s menace. Although Ronderos were quite successful many of them died in combat. Silenciario’s father died while fighting as a Ronder, thereafter he decided to flee Ayacucho. He moved to Pisco.

Silenciario lives in a shanty house made of straw, therefore his house did not as a result of the earthquake. However, due to the small tsunami that the earthquake created, his fishing boat was significantly damaged. Silenciario’s fishing boat is a vital part of his income as he naturally cultivates shellfish in his “spare” time. We thought it would be a good idea to help him repair his boat with the Earthquake relief funds, as fishing is part of his livelihood.

The cost to repair the boat was 700 soles ($233) (he did receive an estimate of 1,000 soles, but we told him it was too much).

Epicenter

Tragic natural disasters are constantly occurring around the world. Today's news media often saturates us with news coverage and stunning images for a few weeks and then it stops. We go on with our daily lives and forget about how people living in the affected areas continue their daily struggle to barely get by.

September 22, 2007 - Lucha

I must say that I hold Corvallis near and dear to my heart. Not only was I born there, but my 4-year-old son was too. Living in Corvallis, it’s so easy to NOT realize how most people in the world live. Oh how the building codes can be frustrating, but they are really for our protection; and the zoning, well that’s important too. Sometimes so much infrastructure bothers us, but it’s better to have too much than too little.

I can’t put into words what Chincha is like. It’s dirty, chaotic, unorganized…can I think of any other negative descriptive words? That’s what it was like before the earthquake, NOW it’s worse. There are piles of adobe, dirt, and garbage everywhere.

Let me introduce you to Lucha. Lucha is nearly 60-years-old. She raises her four grandchildren, her husband became deaf from one of the jobs he held. Lucha is a domestic worker in the condominium where I live. She makes 16.50 Soles a day (not even $6) working from 7am to 5pm, Monday-Saturday. It costs her 4 Soles to get to and from work. Lucha’s house collapsed during the earthquake, fortunately everyone in her family is okay.

From the more than generous GBF clothing donations, Lucha received two coats and a sweater (as seen in the picture) for three of her four grandchildren. Her grandchildren are 3, 6, 9, and 14 years old. Because I couldn’t bring all the donations to Chincha at once, I was unable to find anything that would fit the 14yr old. Lucha is extremely grateful, she told me, “God Bless your mother and her church.”

Many people have not gone back to work, as they have gotten used to receiving the food rations. There is a man who is a janitor where Chalo works in Pisco, Chalo took him a jacket for each of his three children ages 2, 3, and 8. His house in Pisco also collapsed.

Last weekend we went out and about the small villages around Chincha: El Carmen, Tambo de Mora, and Chincha Baja. All the historical Catholic Churches are no longer safe and the majority of people are living in Coleman tents or homemade tents from tarps and whatever other plastic materials the people can find. We were able to donate several coats to children we came across in the streets, unfortunately we didn’t have the camera with us.