A River Runs Through It: Helping a Community Make a Fresh Start
Cover model, entrepreneur and new mother Christy Turlington Burns recently traveled with CARE to El Salvador. During the trip, she met with communities learning how to reduce the physical and emotional effects caused by natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes.
When 40-year-old Cristina Perez woke up to find floodwater from the river pouring into her room, she knew she had only minutes to clear out and help evacuate families from their homes safely. With children clinging to their parents' necks, neighbors linked arms and fought through the fast-moving, waist-high water and moved to higher ground.
"Our evacuation was very fast and scary," explained Cristina, a community leader in Los Achiotal, to Christy Turlington Burns during a recent visit with CARE to El Salvador. "We've lived here all our lives and never imagined the river could become so dangerous. The storm was intense, and there was no time to save family possessions. Our getting out was the most important thing. It's just amazing that we didn't have any deaths from drowning."
Los Achiotal and neighboring Santa Maria El Cojol were the hardest-hit communities. When it was all over Cristina had not only helped prevent deaths but also mobilized 100 people to build barriers against the floodwaters and prevent more destruction.
CARE responded immediately, distributing food, water, blankets, tools, hygiene supplies, temporary shelter materials to 942 families in the area. CARE is coordinating with partner organizations to rebuild infrastructure while working with Christina and other community leaders to better prepare themselves to reduce the effects of future emergencies.
"Preparatory work must be done in order to save lives and have a more effective emergency response," said Ligia Alvarenga, CARE director in El Salvador. "You can't prepare for every extreme, but we can empower communities to take action and develop their own emergency response plans."
A New Beginning
To underscore the need for action, people in Los Achiotal and Santa Maria El Cojol formed an emergency planning committee with help from CARE. After coming together they were immediately faced with the inevitable question, "We've lived through it, now how do we plan for it?"
Sitting outside under the shade of a tree just a few paces from a broad 3-foot-deep hole in the ground half filled with water and broken bricks — where a house once stood — a group of 30 community members, mostly women, gathered to address the problem.
It was during these initial meetings that CARE staff introduced a series of education, communication and information-gathering activities that helped community leaders complete tasks quickly and thoroughly in the first phase of the planning process.
"During the process, the community's planning committee transforms itself from a collection of individuals into a cohesive group committed to a common vision and plan," said Alvarenga.
Emergency planning committee members like Cristina participated in a series of training sessions that included an introduction to the cycles of disaster, analyzing the roads and basic health services, evaluating food supplies, identifying shelter locations such schools and churches and receiving basic first aid training.
As committee members evaluated their resources and shared their concerns and hopes, they moved toward a common plan. As their plan started to form, they also learned about how to manage temporary shelters, how to deal with conflict, how to train others, how to coordinate with aid organizations and the local governments to recognize common goals and share information and how to help children within their communities cope with the psychological effects of emergencies.
"It's very powerful to actually stand in an impoverished community, especially after an emergency, and witness how people like Cristina are taking action towards making their communities more secure," said Turlington Burns after attending the meeting in Santa Maria El Cojol. "In a relatively short period of time, people have shifted discussion from issues and problems to viable solutions that address the needs of the community on the whole."
Alvarenga said that "the key to this training is knowing that the community already has the capacity within themselves, and CARE is simply supporting them."
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