Guatemala village homeless following hurricane and mud slides.

The village of Union Victoria in Guatemala, which has had a strong relationship with the Church of the Brethren for the past five years, is homeless and without food following Hurricane Stan and resulting mud slides. Union Victoria is the placement site for mission worker Rebecca Allen since the fall of 2004, working through the General Board's Global Mission Partnerships and Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS). Allen was away from the village when the five days of hurricane-related rains began, but returned on Oct. 11 to continue accompanying the villagers as they await aid.

General Board staff are working on ways to respond to the needs in Union Victoria, including grants from the Emergency Disaster Fund for immediate food and shelter needs and other responses.

Other Guatemalan communities with Brethren connections were not hit so hard, according to Tom Benevento, Latin America/Caribbean staff for Global Mission Partnerships. Another mission worker in Guatemala, Todd Bauer, reported by e-mail to the BVS office that in other areas of the country there is great damage. "There are whole villages that have been lost. There are major damages to the transportation infrastructure of the country," he wrote.

"The response of the Guatemalans to help their neighbors has been quick and effective," Bauer added. "People that haven't been affected directly are sending canned goods, clothes, and medicine to the affected zones. The affected families are being taken care of for the moment. The big question will be the reconstruction of the lost homes. This is a cost the Guatemalan people and unfortunately the government can't afford. This is where foreign governments, international agencies, solidarity groups, and sympathetic individuals are needed to help."

Reporting by satellite telephone to Benevento, Allen said that the 86 or 87 families that make up the village of Union Victoria are camped out on a hillside, sheltering in plastic sheets and tents. The community was evacuated, and rain and mud slides have destroyed some homes and the village crops, Allen said. No one in Union Victoria died in the disaster--one woman was saved after she was trapped by the slides.

The villagers had no food as of the time Allen called, and feared that it will be difficult for aid to reach them as the road and bridge to the community have been destroyed. The villagers asked Allen to pass on a request for help.

The Church of the Brethren has supported the village of Union Victoria for about the last five years through the accompaniment of mission and BVS workers and a variety of development projects, said Benevento. The village is made up of refugees who have returned from 15 years of hiding out in the mountains during Guatemala's time of armed conflict. The Church of the Brethren was the first group to help accompany the villagers after they settled, "so there's a strong connection," Benevento said.

In Union Victoria, "for every one person that's alive, one has died from those 15 years of starvation and attacks from the military," Benevento said. For the past five years the community has done "pretty well," he said, as it established a school and built homes. Now a number of those homes are washed out as well as all of the community's crops. "Some people are saying they're not sure they want to stay," Benevento reported from his conversation with Allen. "They're pretty frightened."

Source: 10/14/2005 Newsline Special Report
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