By Monika Goforth | Guatemala Executive Director
Last week we visited community leaders of La Trinidad and two community-run evacuation shelters.
The shelters worked hard to resist take over by government institutions accused of stockpiling donated materials and responding irresponsibly to the crisis. The community run shelters have high levels of trust and accountability, rendering them ideal collaborators to ensure the filters are used to benefit the most people.
La Trinidad evacuees are living in a school housing 8 families in each classroom. 800 people are organized into kitchen committees to cook in a large outdoor kitchen. 15 water filters would provide them with ample drinking and cooking water for over a year. When families are resettled and the shelter closes down, there will be a public raffle to send a filter home with a family.
The two villages of Panimiche 1 and Palo Verde remain inhabited by over 90 people each. These villages have been cut off from road access due to the pyroclastic flows. They have no electricity and are suffering from extremely poor water quality.
200 water filters are currently shipping from Miami to Guatemala City. We hope we can deliver these to the villages this week.
57 solar lamps are also ready to travel to the villages this week, enabling people to charge their cell phones and see at night.
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