The Ali Shungu Foundation

"IMPROVING THE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELL-BEING

OF FIVE ANDEAN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES"

Heavy rains have swept over a dozen houses away from our communities. There are many, many more houses that have been condemned as unsafe.  In April, we lost 4 beautiful neighbor children and their mother when their house was just carried away in a instant at 1:00 am by a landslide that accelerated for 200 meters before making impact.

The folks from our village are now living in the community center that our foundation built and there is a lot of support from families and community friends. Those the most affected are older people and the poorer villagers that were living in old adobe structures or cheaply built cement block houses. The government has offered to rebuild houses, but that could take months. The best way we can all help right now is by providing food.

Any help you can offer will allow us to continue to provide food while we wait for the Ecuadorian government to take action. The local Red Cross has been helpful by providing blankets and foam mattresses.

Very little money goes a long way to buy food. We are feeding over 85 people now for about $.75 per person each day.  If you are able to help, the best way to send money is through Paypal. Open the paypal page and "send" money with your CC to our business account, hotel@alishungu.com.

Many, many thanks to all of you that have sent money to help, especially the folks on the Ecuador Expat forum, Mark LeBaron, Mary Holiman, John Fimian, Deborah Robinson, Bill Fish, Jeremy Griffith, Raymond Irizarry, Katherine Kaplan, Linda Koskinen, Thomas and Roberta Hobsaon, ReginA Potenza, Jacquie Rodgers of Global Goods, Bonnie Dalrymple, Carol |Moyl and special thanks to one of the owners of Expat Exchange, Betsy Burlingame!

Sincerely,

Frank and Margaret

Tragedy in the Andes:  April 2011 part 3

Compañera Concepcion Fuerez shows us some of the damage that has made several homes unsafe for living.

Tragedy in the Andes:  April 2011 part 2

Darwin Perugachi is a hero.  He pulled his two brothers from the mud moments before they would have been washed away.

Tragedy in the Andes:  April 2011 part 1

Heavy rain and flooding during the last week have killed 5 and left hundreds homeless in our villages.  Please help!

TRAGEDY IN THE ANDES

Tragedy in the Andes:  April 2011 part 4

With support from home and afar, for the second time in three days the Ali Shungu foundation is delivering food to two communities.

To be continued

These videos are now subtitled in English

Tragedy in the Andes:  April 2011 part 5

In Yambiro there are 14 families, 54 people, that have no home and await some action by the authorities.

UPDATE:  May 20, 2011

Heavy rains are behind us and many have left the community center and school rooms to wait in their homes for the authorities.  Today, engineers from the government are inspecting properties and on Saturday, the villagers will meet with government officials.  As we understand the situation at this moment each community must obtain a flat piece of land.  A cluster of houses will be constructed, with no land for animals or gardens.  To receive the houses, the villagers must turn over the deeds to their land so that there will be no constructions in the future………..  We will provide updates next week.

Thanks to your help, the Ali Shungu foundation was able to provide a plate of healthy decent food each day for about 87 persons for over a month.  Many, many thanks to all!