Two devastating hurricanes in two weeks. That is what our neighbors in Central America are coping with. Take a moment to meet a few of them, then give a gift to our World of Good emergency fund to help them.
Less than two weeks after Hurricane Eta ravaged parts of Central America, Hurricane Iota followed, bringing destruction to already poor, vulnerable and devastated communities. We had a team already on the ground in Honduras when the storm hit, planning our response. They spoke to a few our neighbors there. They are worried. They are scared. They need your love to see them through this crisis.
Please give a gift of any amount to our World of Good emergency fund to reach families with the emergency help they desperately need.
Ernesto Lemus woke up to the sound of water rushing through his home at 4 a.m. "We knew the storm was coming but it got here earlier than we expected." There is now 12 inches of mud and raw sewage in his home. The family has put everything but essentials on the dirt street in front of their home in Suyapa. Scores of homes now have mattresses, sofas and other everyday items lining the dirt road where water swept through like an impromptu river. All that is left are the bare essentials — and worry about how to recover without steady income as a construction laborer. "And now we're facing Iota," he said. "I pray it doesn't happen again."
Maritsa Morales fainted when she heard the news of a potential Hurricane Iota coming through her community again. "I was told to evacuate but I have five kids and a mother in law in a wheelchair," she said. "How am I supposed to evacuate?" She eventually made her way to Centre Basico Fidelina Cerros where she shelters, minding the children and helping her mother in law while her husband works as a day laborer. "I'm afraid of what will happen," she says. "We’ve already lost everything. I just don't know what we'll do to recover. I feel safe here at the shelter. I have nowhere else to go so I am glad I feel safe here."
Raphael Estrada is a community leader in Suyapa, where dozens of residents have sought shelter at the Community Center of Suyapa. A cinderblock building along one of the few paved roads in town, the smell of urine is thick at the front door and all inside the center. There is no sewer system here, where 87 families - 80 adults and 40 children - have sought shelter. "A lot of these people cannot go home anymore, and now we're scared of the new storm."
A good bit of Sindi Gordon's cocao crop is buried under feet of mud from Hurricane Eta. She narrowly escaped the rushing flood of river water but her real danger may be yet to come. "I only have enough money for another month," she said. "After that, I don’t know what I am going to do to feed my family."
"We knew the storm was coming and we needed to open," community center manager, Daisi Barena Alverengi, says. "These are poor people and they have nowhere else to go." Most families have lost work and income because of the pandemic.
"I'm worried about flooding but I'm most worried about hygiene," Alverengi says. "There is no water service here anymore. I am worried with more people crowded into the shelter, what will happen." She also worries for those who didn't manage to make it to a shelter. "People have lost everything and it's starting to get cold."
Without your love, we cannot respond to the Central America hurricanes
This has been a year of unprecedented crisis and our resources are painfully stretched thin. Your gift today to our World of Good emergency fund will send your love – in the form of emergency shelter, food, water and more – to families in Central America who desperately need it.
As you continue to keep your family safe, please remember your neighbors in need. Give today.