Post by Rosemary Burnett

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Photo: Rosemary Burnett

Don Pedro stands stiffly to attention outside his makeshift tented house, a survivor of the mudslide which engulfed the small community of Panabaj in Guatemala in October 2005. In a way, he was one of the lucky ones - only one of his five children perished in the wave of mud and boulders which buried some 600 people as they slept. Sadly, his thirteen year old son ran back to get his savings of £4 and was swept into a partly excavated septic tank and buried alive.

Others lost 11 or 12 members of their family and are standing at the edge of the exhumation site looking to see whether their loved ones will be identified amongst the bodies being unearthed. Clothes and possessions are unearthed by the giant excavating machines, then gathered by relatives to be buried with their former owners. Particularly sad are the elderly, who wonder why they survived when their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren perished.

Initially it was estimated that 1400 were missing, but this was later reassessed at 600 as survivors reappeared and today it is reckoned that about 150 people are still buried beneath 4 metres of mud. The mudslide hit in the middle of the night, and the forensic archaeologists are finding family groups huddled together. Detailed records are taken from the survivors of distinguishing characteristics of a missing loved one – perhaps a gold tooth, or a leg broken in infancy. The landscape has changed so much – what was once a pleasant wooded valley has become a desert of mud and rocks so that orientation of the houses is difficult and the relatives are often unable to give clear directions as to the distances between them. In the confusion of that night, it is sometimes hard to remember which child was sleeping where. Sometimes a child is found swept downstream and far from his or her own home.

Visitors from overseas can see at a glance that donations from overseas have provided all sorts of emergency necessities for the survivors. Oxfam’s logo is prominently displayed on the latrines and the European Union’s stars are stuck to water tanks. Houses are made of crude wooden frames whose walls are made up of fabric with the legend “A gift from the people of the United States of America”. But the fact remains that more than a year after the event, people are still living in temporary accommodation, though infrastructure such as roads and bridges have been repaired.

Yet after Hurricane Stan, money poured in to Guatemala, most notably from the Spanish government. Why are people still living in temporary shelters? The government have actually built new breeze block homes, but they have built them on land which was subjected to a similar mud slide in the 1950s. Families want to live somewhere safe where a tidal wave of mud will not carry away their loved ones.

Just after I left Panabaj, on 8^th January, 38 bodies were buried. The Mayan people have a remarkable resilience when it comes to dealing with death. They believe that the spirits of their dead will watch over them and give them guidance in their lives. It is important to maintain a dialogue with the departed, and every Monday families go to the graveyard to light candles and honour the spirits of their ancestors. At least now, the families of the 38 victims will have a grave to visit.

Update (16-02-2007)

This from CERIGUA:

Update (26-02-2007)

This from Siglo XXI which says according to NGO Accion Ciudadana, the Guatemalan government hasn't finished any housing for families affected by Stan- with 80% of the affected families still living in temporary accommodation:

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This article was originally printed in The Big Issue Scotland

Associated Press reported on the excavation in Panabaj of 100 bodies buried in the landslide caused by Hurricane Stan in 2005. There was a line in the report that touched on an issue that's not usually discussed:


A simple search on Flickr brings up a number of photos taken of Panabaj (although probably not from this particular ceremony). Not to judge these particular photos, but this line about 'curious tourists' touches on an important issue that outsiders* must grapple with.

To be sure, there's a very fine line between informative reporting and intrusive disrespectful recording, between wanting to learn, and satiating curiosity. It's a line that as outsiders we're not always on the right side of. When I worked in and around the municipal rubbish dump in Guatemala City, I remember the huge quantity of tourists that would come, usually remain on the coach they came in, and take hundreds of photos of the people who lived and worked amongst the refuse. This type of 'social tourism' is abject.

There's a secondary point here. It's so often the case that people from outside of Guatemala are usually either exposed to two contrasting images of Guatemala- one is the touristic colour and natural beauty, and the other is the dark and ugly violence. On the outside as we are on this blog, despite years of commitment and living in the country, it's a constant concern that we avoid simply satiating curiosity and that we manage to go beyond the simplistic outside perceptions of Guatemala. Anyway, this is a massive issue and one we'll be returning to shortly.

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* I use the term 'outsider' loosely, it could refer to non-Guatemalans, Guatemalans living outside Guatemala or even Guatemalans from the capital visiting the 'interior'.

It's now just over a year that Hurricane Stan struck Guatemala. What follows is an excerpt from the latest Rights Action newsletter (Dec, 2006) and gives an update on relief work that has been going on to support the rebuilding effort across the country. You can see the full newsletter here. We have been working closely with Rights Action from the UK and there is more information at the end of this post if you are interested in supporting their work.

In other news, you can find an article on water privitization, development and human rights violations: Xalala Dam Project= Chixoy Dam revisited. There is also an article on mines, development and human rights violations: Skye Resources Inc and Security Forces versus Mayan-Q’eqchi Communities [see full newsletter].

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Many thanks to all donors - individual and institutional - for your financial contributions over the past year, dating back to October  2005, for our emergency short-term relief and medium-term community rebuilding work in Guatemala in response to the deaths and destruction caused by Hurricane Stan.

The 'relief' part of the work is over and the 'rebuilding' work continues; in some regions, it has barely started.  

In early October 2005, Hurricane Stan devastated much of Guatemala, particularly the western highlands and ‘boca costa’ mountainsides leading down to the south-west pacific coast.  The number of persons killed or disappeared is over 2000.  It is still not known how many villagers were killed when mudslides buried the villages of Panabaj (departament of Sololá) and Piedra Grande (departamento of San Marcos).  At the writing of this report, the FAFG (the Forensic Anthropology Team, long supported by Rights Action to dig up mass graves of genocide and repression victims across the country) has initiated a massive exhumation process in the village of Panabaj where most of the village, and hundreds of villagers, were crushed in a mud-slide.

Throughout Guatemala, over 600 villages were negatively affected, to one degree or another; thousands of homes (mainly small huts) were destroyed.

SHORT-TERM EMERGENCY RELIEF

Immediately after Stan hit, Rights Action appealed for donations and began channelling emergency grants for deliveries of emergency food and water, bedding and clothing, and medical attention. Coordinated from our Guatemala City office, this work was done with numerous community-based groups that we have long supported and worked with. The short-term emergency relief phase lasted into early January! We sent out a summary report early in 2006.

VISION OF WORK

As we have written, it is RA’s understanding that while Stan was a devastating storm of torrential rains (resulting in floods, mud-slides, etc), the underlying issue to be addressed is the eradication of endemic poverty (caused by an unjust development- economic model) that leaves a majority of Central Americans subsisting in conditions of great vulnerability.

Starting in early 2006, Rights Action began channelling relief grants to medium-term relief and community reconstruction projects that we summarize here.  While there is, in these projects, a continuing component of emergency material relief, the main thrust of this work is to re-build, or (in some cases) relocate and rebuild healthy and safe living communities.

All of the work summarized below is based on an ‘integral community development vision’, with integrated components of:

- Community design of, control over and participation in the reconstruction and rebuilding project
- Integral vision of ‘development’, including protection of the local environment, including water sources, and reforesting steep hill and mountains sides
- Prioritizing clear title to and community and family ownership of lands
- Implementing productive projects that prioritize community and local food security and local and regional markets

PROJECTS FUNDED

- funds granted and spent, short-term emergency relief phase : $110,000;
- funds granted, to date, medium- and long-term rebuilding phase : $500,000;
- further funding is needed – long-term rebuilding proposal available on request.

PARTNER GROUPS

1 - CCDA – COMITE CAMPESINO POR EL DESARROLLO DEL ALTIPLANO / CAMPESINO COMMITTEE FOR DEVELOPMENT IN THE HIGHLANDS

For many years, RA has supported and worked with CCDA on a range of community development projects, including production and selling of fair trade coffee. In response to Stan, CCDA is working directly in Mayan-Tzutujil communities of the department of Solola, and Mayan-Mam communities of the department of San Marcos .  The main focuses of this work are:

- planting and replanting organic coffee that they will sell via their international trading relations for fair trade coffee;
- planting and replanting basic subsistence crops of corn and beans.

2 - ASECSA - ASOCIACIÓN DE SERVICIOS COMUNITARIOS DE SALUD/ ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES

RA has long supported and worked with ASECSA – a leading community health/dental/ midwifery organization - on a range of community health projects. In response to Stan, ASECSA is supporting the design and building of “granjas integrales” (integral farms) in Mayan-Quiche communities of Tziamjuyub, Pakoval II and Xeabaj II, in the municipality of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, department of Solola.

3 - CODECA - COMITE DE DESARROLLO CAMPESINO / CAMPESINO
 DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

RA has long supported and worked with CODECA on community development and human rights issues in various departments of the south-coastal and Boca Coast regions.  In response to Stan, CODECA is designing and supporting projects in 3 communities:

- In the Mayan community (a mixture of Quiche, Mam, Kakchikel, Tzutujil, ladino)
 of Monsenor Romero (105 families; department of Suchitepequez) , CODECA is developing a 5-tank Tilapia fish farm, as well as the reproduction of their staple crops – corn and sesame

- In the camepsino community of Rancho Alegre (280 families; municipality of Mazatenango, department of Retalhuleu), CODECA is developing two community projects : a milk cow project and a watermelon and bamboo production project, as well as the re-production of their traditional corn and sesame crops
- In the campesino community of Nueva Linda (department of Retalhuleu), CODECA is developing a craft and agricultural production project.

4 - AGEMA - ASOCIACIÓN DE DESARROLLO INTEGRAL Y SALUD COMUNITARIO “GENERACION DEL MAIZ” / ASSOCIATION OF INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNITY HEALTH “GENERATION OF CORN”

RA began working with and supporting AGEMA, in response to Stan. In the municipality of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan (department of Solola), AGEMA is working with a new community of some 100 families of a total of some 405 families from 8 different communities that lost homes, land and crops (corn,beans, coffee) to Stan.  The communities were : Xoljá, Pacutamá sector I, Pacutamá sector II, Chajuab, Chiucutamá, Pacorral I, Pacorral II, Tzamjuyup and Xeabaj II.  For months, these families were in temporary shelters supported by government and non-government (including Rights Action) funding sources.

A new living community is being built called “Nuevo Asentamiento Chiquizis”. There are three components to this work : providing “techo minimo” – supplies to build minimal housing structures with simple but sturdy walls and roof; planting a variety of fruit trees (Apples, Cherries, Peaches, y Avacados); building and planting 3 community gardens.

5 -  CLINICA MAXENA

RA begain working with the Clinica Maxena (that has a long term relation with ASECSA) in response to Stan, in the municipality of Santo Tomas la Union , department of Suchitepequez. The integral health Clinica Maxena is working in the Mayan-Quiche communities of Pala and Patzaj to build community and family gardens.

FUTURE PLANS – REBUILDING AND RECONSTRUCTING AFTER STAN

Upon request, Rights Action can send a proposal “Rebuilding and Reconstructing after Stan” setting out our future and on-going reconstruction and rebuilding plans. 

TAX-CHARITABLE DONATIONS

To make tax-charitable donations for “Rebuilding and Reconstructing After Stan”:  

- Credit card donations can be made going to www.rightsaction.org
- In the UK contact Jane Pelly de Jocolt at: rightsactionuk [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

We've just been contacted by a really interesting initiative called Project Information Ixtahuacan. It uses the internet to improve communication in the new resettled communities following the effects of Hurricane Stan in October 2005. It is really important to be able to see where work is taking place, and where more work needs to be carried out. This is short description of the project taken from the website:

It's been one year since Hurricane Stan struck Guatemala and much of Central America. The following article by Elizabeth Sagastume called "One year after Hurricane Stan: a silent emergency", has been published on the UN World Food Programme's website.

Topline stats are (according to the UN Food Programme):


There are one or two articles in the Guatemalan press (see below) about the progress since Stan, e.g. Government has only completed 66% of work planned. There is also some coverage on the BBC that's worth reading with information about the current situation in Guatemala one year on. There are more links after the article below:

Here's another article from El Periodico about Panabaj- one year on.

There's also another interesting look in Spanish on the BBC Mundo website called "Stan: Sus Reacciones". The report also includes video and photos of those affected talking about their experiences.

The following article was in the latest weekly report from the Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala:

There were a few articles this week about the deteriotating weather conditions in Guatemala, Reuters AlertNet reported on the waves battering Guatemala's coast and on the increasing rain fall. As did the BBC and The Guardian.

The Mesoamerican Food Security Early Warning System has recently (15-05-2006) published an update on the current food security situation in Guatemala since Hurricane Stan. The information from MFSEWS makes special reference to the XVIII Central American Climate Outlook Forum held in Belize from April 18-21, 2006.

This has led the National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology, and Hydrology (INSIVUMEH) to warn in its latest report (24-05-2006) that above normal cyclonic activity is 80% more likely in the Atlantic region in 2006.

In particular, the current concerns include that the planting of this year's crops will be affected by lack of suitable drained land for this purpose. A worry is also the high cost of fuel and relative high cost of basic food stuffs. In the UK, the plight of Guatemalans more than six months on from Stan has been picked up by AlertNet and to a lesser extent The Guardian.

With winter (our summer) approaching in Guatemala, many of the communities affected by Hurricane Stan in October 2005 are worried that the work of rebuilding is going too slowly. Articles are starting to appear in the Guatemalan press that reinforce this worry that communities are still all too vulnerable to winter flooding.

Recently the following video was posted on the internet by guatemalago.org of what it was like in Panajachel when Stan struck last year. The pictures are very sobering, and help bring home to those who were not there, what it was like for those Guatemalans who felt the full force of the hurricane and its consequences.


       

Heather Parr was in Guatemala as Hurricane Stan struck in October 2005. Here she shares her account of how the local community she has got to know in Sololá has undertaken the task of rebuilding their lives and their future.

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MoSTANcilla currently consists of 13 groups of 5-7 women who were all made homeless by Stan. Every Monday and Friday afternoon they come to drop off and get paid for the work they have done and pick up their beds for the next week. As the groups are generally friendship groups or family it is also quite a social occasion. Of course the youngest children come too. Some of the late teens attend school in the afternoon, so they come in the morning instead so as not to miss out on their education.

Many women have a limited variety of styles so we have arranged classes where women are paid to share their expertise with others in the group. In the last class 32 women participated. We have been establishing rules for quality control and for fair payment of the women. We are currently paying a rate per item, with the idea being to share the profit fairly amongst the women on a quarterly basis. The first profit share is in March.

The main concern for us right now is to ensure a sustainable market. We have had some success in placing the products in hotels in the city and Antigua, and individuals and organizations such as Miracles in Action have supported out work by giving us a trial order. I am also trying to establish the tax rules for importing into the UK- any experience that you might have to share in this respect would be very welcome! We are also in the process of designing a website to exhibit the ladies’ designs online. The future plan is to establish an official cooperative association and to ensure our accounts are kept carefully, so that after two years we can apply for Fair Trade accreditation. 

We are also looking for an interested volunteer who maybe interested in working with the cooperative for a minimum of 6 months (although a year would be preferable) starting in July 2006. This would suit a Hispanic studies student with an interest in fashion and design who aspires to work in sales and marketing in the future. 

It will be many years before this population recovers from the destruction that was caused by STAN. However in the meantime we hope that MoSTANcilla can play a small part in the replacement of material goods, and by providing employment and a support network for this particular group of women in the psychological recovery process.

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For information you can visit Heather’s blog

Or for further information about reconstruction work in Atitlan since Stan

Heather Parr was in Guatemala as Hurricane Stan struck in October 2005. Here she shares her account of how the local community she has got to know in Sololá has undertaken the task of rebuilding their lives and their future.

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Over the next three weeks we help 150 men get back to work. At this stage the town hall also starts to give out tools, so we switch our focus to the women knowing that the remaining men are receiving support from other places. The women either weave or make beaded jewelry or ‘mostacilla’ as it is known in Spanish. A local hotel owner is coordinating a project with funding from ECO and Oxfam for the weavers so we concentrate on the bead makers. 

The same day that we take this decision in mid November, I hear that my ex pupils at Monkseaton Comnunity High School in Whitley Bay have organized a series of fundraising activities and have made £650. We use this money to buy needles, threads, scissors and of course, beads for the affected women.

We invite ten women who we know to be truly affected to invite five other friends or members of their family who are affected to form a group. Word gets around and we end up with 88 ladies, many of whom are new widows, teenage orphans and all of whom have lost their houses and suffered trauma. Their stories are incredibly moving. It is our intention to simply give them the ‘mostacilla’ so they can start back at work again. But John Bound from www.gypsyrose.com a wholesale trader in the States seeks me out and tells us that he wants to buy directly from the women.  He makes a generous donation and more importantly makes me think: what if I could help the women access direct sales?

I do a bit of investigating and the corresponding maths. The women are often paid as little as 2 quetzales (about 20p) for an hours work once they have paid for their materials. The traders on the other hand, will often make double this when it is sold on.   I also discover that many NGOs operating in Guatemala sell Guatemalan produced ‘mostacilla’ to raise money for their development work projects.  However for some reason, they do not seem to make the connection that by buying from traders at the lowest possible prices they are exploiting one group of people to benefit another.

Can I raise people’s awareness and convince them to buy at a fairer price from the women direct?  In this and by finding other markets to sell directly we could potentially quadruple the women’s earnings. This is the beginning of our association MoSTANcilla. 

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For information you can visit Heather’s blog

Or for further information about reconstruction work in Atitlan since Stan

Heather Parr was in Guatemala as Hurricane Stan struck in October 2005. Here she shares her account of how the local community she has got to know in Sololá has undertaken the task of rebuilding their lives and their future.

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It’s Sunday 2nd October 2005 and I arrive in Santiago de Atitlán, Sololá Guatemala intending to spend three months working as a volunteer.

It starts to rain at about 2pm and doesn’t stop for five days. In this time over 600 people in my new community are killed, and between 3,000 and 4,500 people are made homeless as a result of a devastating landslide in Canton Panabaj. I arrived with Hurricane Stan. 

Stan cuts us off for the best part of a week. The phone lines are down, the power is off, the roads are closed, the market is shut and nobody anywhere else knows what is happening to the town. Everyone from every walk of society does what they can to help, whether that’s carrying water, washing dishes, sourcing food, chopping vegetables, or taking bleach to the shelters. I see a polio stricken beggar woman crawl to the town hall and donate 15 quetzales (approx. £1.50). Everyone gives what they have to help the people of their town. 

After 3 days the power returns and we try and get word out about what has happened. I write to the BBC on their website, but by the time they arrive – eight days on- and interview me we are old news. The Kashmir earthquake has happened and in comparison, the Stan tragedy doesn’t count as news.  I ask friends and family for help knowing that if we don’t even make the news, we can’t expect to receive much aid.

Food starts to get through as the press arrive. The next ten days are spent distributing food, but it is clear that the people are not going to receive much long term. We need to help the people affected by Stan, or the ‘damnificados’ as they are emotively being called, back to work. As we give out one of the last donations of food, we interview the people as to what equipment they need to work. My wonderful friends, family and colleagues come through at the same time and we use the initial donations to buy tools for the men so they can go back to their jobs in the fields. 

I give them three tools and offer the fourth on micro credit so that they have what they need to go to work. We maintain the contact in case we manage to get more aid. At the same time an Irish volunteer arrives, also with funds from home and we set to work together to collect information as to who needs what, and as far as possible to monitor who has received what from whom, although this proves difficult. This information means we are able to tell passing tourists what is needed and helps us access funding from German association Probigua and from a generous private British donor.

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For information you can visit Heather’s blog

Or for further information about reconstruction work in Atitlan since Stan

Just caught this published on St Margaret's Community website in Teddington, West London: "Each year during Lent the people of St Margarets Roman Catholic Church parish commit to helping some of the poorest people on our planet. This year they are supporting the villagers of Panimaché in Guatemala and children and babies orphaned in Uganda. If you would like to help you can send a donation to St Margarets RC Church Lenten Project and drop it in at the Parish House opposite St Margarets BR Station."

"Alternatively you could support one of the many events that are taking place.

• Sunday 23^rd April Don Rush will run for the 26^th time in the London Marathon with his long time running partner Rush Yadave. They are grateful for sponsors in support of the Lenten Project. As two of the ‘evegreens’ they will get to start with the elite runners.
• Saturday, 29^th April Grand Jumble Sale — 11am St Margarets Church Hall.
• Saturday, 21^st May Family Fun Day — 12.00 onwards.

Thank you for your support and interest."

Has someone from Buckingham being writing letters about Guatemala to their Conservative MP John Bercow? It's great to see his interest in Guatemala. He recently asked two questions in as many days in the House of Commons about the current situation in Guatemala with regards death squads and after hurricane Stan in October 2005.

Here is part of Gareth Thomas's (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for International Development) response on the situation in Guatemala after Stan.

A key reconstruction priority was ensuring access to safe reliable water, and much of the rehabilitation effort has focused on this. Waterborne disease remains a risk for affected communities and the Ministry of Health have been supported in the provision of transportation services, basic health kits including mosquito nets, and training for communities in health and nutrition awareness. Overall progress in reconstructing sanitation units has been slow, which in many cases has only reached 10 per cent. of target so far. However, some areas have benefited from intensive NGO efforts to ensure safe water, with as many as 10,000 water filters being provided and treatment plants in three municipalities. The installation of systems has been undertaken in close conjunction with local government authorities and communities to ensure sustainability.

Children have been badly affected by the hurricane the most, and those who remain in shelters will continue to receive psychological and educational support from rehabilitation partners. A continuing concern is the restoration of the livelihoods of the communities affected, either through agricultural support to those who returned to their homes, or through income generation opportunities for those who remain in shelters or have been relocated. DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have been in discussions with the Guatemalan Government to assess how those worst affected by Stan can begin to rehabilitate their livelihoods."

This is a brief post to flag up examples of media coverage for the work of two development organisations who have been working in Guatemala in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan in October 2005.

The first example is from CAFOD who have been involved in various projects through partners on the ground in Guatemala. This is an article published in the Tablet is from CAFOD's Fiona Callister. She makes the interesting point that although here the disaster was forgotten quickly, solidarity has been impressively strong in Guatemala itself crossing the religious divide between Catholics and Protestants.

"For example in the diocese of Jalapa, which contains San Carlos, desperately poor parishioners collected an impressive $20,000 (£11,500) to help those affected by Stan. Even more remarkably, the decision was taken that, although their diocese had been brought to its knees by the hurricane, they would donate the money to another parish which they considered had been worse hit.

This solidarity has been a strong feature of the disaster response, with Churches organising themselves almost immediately to take it in turns to feed those who had lost everything. So the Pentecostal Church would find 100 eggs for breakfast, then the Catholic Church would provide lunch in the shelters and dinner would come courtesy of the Evangelicals.

Miguel Marroquin, the director of Cafod partner FGER Nahuala community radio, which has helped distribute blankets and food, said: “People who are already poor and have suffered themselves have responded one hundred per cent. It is very humbling and inspiring. There is a great sense of solidarity and unity. The age-old religious divisions have been transformed and everyone is pulling together. This is something we must build on.” "

Fiona Callister mentions CAFOD's lenten fundraising- one example is St Margaret's Church, Richmond, in the UK already mentioned on this blog last month. For more information on their 26th March event, see this post.

The other example is an article that appeared in AlertNet on the work of World Emergency Relief in supporting the rebuilding of houses in affected areas of Guatemala.

"WER has released funds to local partner agency, Cosecha Trust, to purchase land and materials to rebuild houses for families who were left homeless in the aftermath of the disaster. These new homes will provide housing for over 100 people in the town of Tecpan."

According to a study by Tom Vesey, head of media analysts Carma International, western self-interest determines whether or not natural and humanitarian disasters earn column inches. "There is a clear link between the volume of reportage and global economic impact of these events. So, while the political subtext determines the timing, level of commitment and story angle, no connection exists between the scale of the disaster and media interest in the story," he says.

In an excellent article in The Guardian, David Adam, reports on Vesey's findings:

The report was also covered by Reuters' AlertNet in the UK. You can download the complete study here.

What follows is by no means an exhaustive review, but a number of examples of ways in which UK NGOs have been supporting the emergency relief effort in the wake of Hurricane Stan in October 2005.

UK Government's response through DFID provided a total of £250,000 of emergency relief to Guatemala and El Salvador after Hurricane Stan. This support was provided through Plan International UK, £103,000 (70 per cent. for Guatemala and 30 per cent. for El Salvador) and through Care International UK, £100,000 for Guatemala, and £50,000 for El Salvador.

Rights Action, which now has an office in the UK as well as Canada and the US, has put together an interesting update (08-12-05) on Hurricane Stan after collecting over US$100,000 for their emergency relief fund. Rights Action has been able support a whole network of community organisations across Guatemala involved in the relief effort.

Oxfam have been involved in the relief effort providing 13 water tanks in temporary shelters in Solola. An article on the Oxfam website describes some of the experiences of survivors from the worse affected areas in and around Solola.

£200,000 has been approved (£100,000 from CAFOD and £100,000 from Islamic Relief). Of this, £80,000 is being spent on immediate relief and £120,000 is set aside for the longer-term reconstruction and economic and agricultural reactivation. One of CAFOD partners in Guatemala is the partner the Guatemalan Federation of Radio Education (FGER) who have been helping to coordinate the relief effort by radio. CAFOD have written a series of articles on the aftermath of Stan.

Christian Aid covered Stan in their round up of current issues in Guatemala today (January 2006). Christian Aid works with 13 partner organisations in Guatemala.

Action Aid Guatemala arranged for an additional £40,000 for San Marcos, in particular for food, medecine and clothes in the wake of Stan.

Save the Children has distributed more than 21 tons of food rations including rice, beans, oil, and biscuits as well as medicines, blankets and specific items for children including toys and recreational equipment to assist more than 6,000 displaced people in Santiago de Atitlan and San Lucas Toliman. Additional staff members are arriving at shelters to improve health care and create safe play areas for displaced children.

The Guatemala Solidarity Network would also like to highlight the individual efforts across the UK to respond to the emergency. These ranged from organising local fundraising events to actually flying out to Central America to lend support to Guatemalan friends and loved ones.

Please let us know of any other work of UK NGOs in Guatemala after Stan, we would be happy to include it here.

Which UK organisations are doing what: where you can donate to in the UK

ActionAid - UK website does not mention at all, but Action Aid Guatemala has an email you can contact
Save the Children - relief effort is being coordinated in the US
Christian Aid - UK website encourages support for its emergency crisis fund
CAFOD - has a notice and a form to donate to this relief effort
SCIAF- Encouraging donations
Red Cross - relief effort is being coordinated in US, though it says the UK has donated £100,000
Oxfam - has news and a form to donate to this relief effort. Oxfam is warning of a potential food crisis in Guatemala in 2006
War on Want - does not mention Stan yet
World Emergency Relief - Calling for donations

You can also support Rights Action that works in Guatemala in their Emergency Relief Fund for Guatemala.

There is a moving video appeal online.

DFID - Does not have a single word on Hurricane Stan in its website
DEC- Disaster Emergency Committee does not mention Stan either

For a round up of NGO response to Hurricane Stan see AlertNet's summary
One World.Net also pulls together news on the response to Stan from across the UK NGOs.

Never before has such an enormous emergency become unnewsworthy so quickly. It wasn't just the mudslides and flooding in Guatemala that became a victim of our collective amnesia, so did the food crisis in Malawi. The fact that this happened quite so fast, has something to do with the massive earthquake in Pakistan. But one week on, Pakistan too is slipping down the news agenda. With this unsustainable publicity, questions are being asked about how we organise emergency relief. Toby Porter, Emergency Director of Save of Children writes an interesting article on this in today's Observer.

This sentiment is echoed in much of the US where the coverage has been relatively poor in the wake of Katrina and Rita. "Hurricane Stan and Guatemala, We Hardly Heard About Ya". It is certainly echoed in many many other blogs, e.g. Norajean, Sunny, etc.

In fact, one of the most recent references to Guatemala in the UK (The Guardian) was as a possible venue for the 400,000 packaged meals that the US authorities have quarantined due to "mad cow" import regulations.

State department officials have considered sending the meals to Guatemala, devastated by mudslides, but the country does not have the vehicles to transport the pallets.

AlertNet is doing a great job to counter this with its regular reports. For a feature article on the effects of STAN in the latest edition Informe Guatemala from Fundadesc.

I've seen various articles begin to put the death toll as much higher than the 654 that Conred in Guatemala is officially saying. Caritas in Spain is putting the figure at 2,052, the BBC was putting the figure as over a 1,000, while Cananda's CBC put the figure at 1,400 since 8th October.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas has put together an interesting article on journalism's role in the emergency.

Congratulations are due to El Canche for getting CBS (makers of the great US reality show- Survivor Guatemala- sadly you can watch it online) to change its really supportive page linking to organisations, none of whom were involved in the relief operations in Guatemala. Good on ya Canche.

The passage of Hurricane Stan across Central America has left Guatemala the worse affected.

Initially, CONRED, Guatemala’s official disaster reduction network called red alerts for communties along the pacific coast, but this was later extended across Guatemala as the extent of flooding and mudslide damage became apparent.

In the worst cases, whole communities have been completely wiped out by the flooding and roads have disappeared. Many ordinary Guatemalans have volunteered to help in the numerous rescue operations.

The scale of the disaster appears to be a lot greater than Hurricane Mitch in 1998 where 268 people were killed in Guatemala. Rights Action have established an emergency relief fund.

Blog de mi Guatemala has pulled together a collection of sites with the latest images of the effects of Stan across Guatemala. More images are on the ACJ (YMCA) in Guatemala.

The latest estimates put the total of people killed in Guatemala as high as (1,400 Source: Reuters). These figures have been changing as the full impact of level 1 hurricane Stan is becoming clear. For photos of the recent flooding in Guatemala (Source: Incidencia Democracia pulled together here). Other photos from Atitlan- one of the worst affected areas.

You can get more information on how Stan has effected many, many different regions across Guatemala from CONRED. You can find more information in Google Earth here.