Meetings in Cusco

Monday was spent getting organised after the weekend and having meetings.

We met with Carlos, our Peruvian contact and with George and Cathy of Desana Inc. George and Cathy founded and run a charity which supports projects in Peru and Russia. When they heard about the floods they flew straight down from the USA to help and brought with them dollars to buy food and wood for the community of Paucarbamba.

Our meeting was to discuss whether it would be better to pool their resources and ours to ensure that we are benefiting communities in the right way and the decision was made that yes, we should. We also agreed that our purpose is get the community of Paucarbamba to be self sufficient again and therefore research needs to be undertaken over the next few weeks to find the best way of doing this.

Putting money to work

Thanks to a stirling effort by Bullfrogs nightclub in Cusco, a few thousand soles were raised from one of their nights to put towards the efforts of Asociacion Casa Hogar del Sol , a project founded and run by Carlos Gibaja Tapia. Priorities for Carlos were to create a covered communal space for the homeless members of the Sacred Valley communities to be able to cook and eat, providing an end-point for the food lines that he had already been set up. Solutions for housing would be shortly to follow, replacing the crowded Ministry of Defense tents that had been distributed in limited amounts around the affected communities. Thanks to connections with Leander, founder of the UK charity MySmallHelp that was acting with Carlos to receive donations from overseas, our presence was requested to assist with the building of a comedor, or cantina.

We met Carlos early on Saturday morning and shot down into the Valley in a hired truck to pick up some wood to build the frame of the design that he had been drawing up over the previous couple of days. A straightforward timber frame affair with tarpaulin sheet walls and a corrugated plastic roof, it wasn't going to win any design awards, but it was relatively cheap, quick to put up and apparently very durable. A similar design had been installed in a community a few years back and was still standing to date.

We arrived in the community and got to work straight away, the community members levelling out an empty patch of ground with picks and shovels, shoring up the downhill side of the plot with stones. Throughout the day I was very impressed with the skill that the locals showed in everything they did, shaving paper thin layers off wooden beams with unwieldy picks and knocking 7" nails into wood with a couple of blows after I'd bent a handful trying to do the same job, cursing for all I was worth.

Lou, Carlos, the locals and I worked together for about 3 hours until a couple of trucks rolled up stuffed with volunteers from Bullfrogs, Hostal Pariwana and a Cusco-based social project that Lou worked for, Aldea Yanapay. Despite the enthusiasm of the volunteers, there were more hands than tools and tasks and progress actually slowed for a while as people charged around the crowded plot trying desperately to find ways to assist.

Eventually a debris clearing operation was found a little further down the valley and half the mob left in the trucks to pull building materials out of flattened houses. The pace of work picked up again, and soon the comedor was taking shape, as Lou and I committed our efforts to make a table for the comedor. After our cheerful construction of a frame that could only be described as 'functional', idle locals descended upon our efforts to finish the job, resulting in a pretty decent looking piece of furniture.

We finished the comedor in about 8 hours of solid work, and as night fell the last nail was hammered into place. The structure was christened with a meal from the food which had the result of donations from two lovely Americans, George and Kathy (founders of www.desanagiving.org) simple but wholesome fodder of noodles, potatoes and meat. Beer bottles arrived to toast the efforts of the construction crew, and by the light of the single bulb suspended from the rafters of the roof, Carlos thanked all present for their efforts and instructed them to make the most of their new facility.

It was a fascinating experience in which to be involved, and very interesting to see the interaction of volunteers with the work effort of the locals; there's a great deal to be said for striking the balance between helping aid recipients to build their own facility, but giving them the lead in taking ownership of the resource that should be theirs for years to come.

Cusco Emergency Appeal

Cusco Emergency Appeal, from the founder of Mysmallhelp, Leander Hollings.

Mysmallhelp is now working in Cusco, Peru together with the Associacion Casa Hogar del Sol, Aldea Yanapay www.aldeayanapay.org and Desana Inc www.desanagiving.org to provide emergency aid to the thousands of people that have been affected by the recent floods and landslides.

It is difficult to measure exactly how many people have been directly and indirectly affected by the recent disaster. It has been quoted in Cusco local news that up to 10,000 people in the Cusco region have lost their homes. Whether or not these estimations are correct is irrelevant. What is clear, is that the recent disaster has resulted in the need for aid for uncountable people and your small help can really make a difference!

The floods have damaged thousands of acres of crop land, washed out about a dozen bridges and damaged several highways.

On Saturday afternoon, I travelled to Paucarbamba with several volunteers and saw the remains of many houses by the river. The majority of the Paucarbamba community just outside Urubamba have been displaced as they have lost homes and all of their possessions.

We crossed the Paucarbamba bridge and walked down the rail line, which is the direct rail link between Cusco and Machu Picchu. It was impacted with mud. We carried food which we had purchased in Cusco and were met by about a hundred people in dirty sodden clothes sharing a small stable like building and a few tents. Some aid had arrived in the form of donated clothes and tents from other organizations but this clearly wasn’t enough.

We started to help them to prepare dinner on their outdoor stove. Although the community had just lost their homes they were in good spirits offering cooking tips to us and making jokes!

Our small help delivering food to this community was very much appreciated and needs to continue. They have asked us to go back with food each day and to deliver blankets and tents urgently.

Please check the album CUSCO EMERGENCY on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=142275&id=505919572&ref=mf

If you would like to make a donation please make a transfer to the Mysmallhelp UK bank account with the reference CUSCO EMERGENCY or make a donation to the
Paypal account registered at leander.hollings@mysmallhelp.org

Mysmallhelp
Lloyds TSB
75 Commercial Street
Batley, WF17 5EQ
IBAN : GB91LOYD30905702074080
Sort Code : 30-90-57
Account No. : 02074080
BIC : LOYDGB21193

If you would like to make a direct transfer to the Peruvian bank account for Casa Hogar del Sol the details are as follows


Bank
Banco De Credito Del Peru (Sucursal Cusco)

Bank Address:
Av: el sol 189 Banco del Crédito del Perú, Cusco, Peru, South America
Acct: Casa Hogar Del Sol.
Acct. No: 285-17299567-1-75
Swift Code BC PL PE PL

Mysmallhelp Documentary

Mysmallhelp documentary Part I


Mysmallhelp documentary Part II

Bio-gas plant final update

Bio-gas Plant

Stages

Volunteer Report of Mira Halbina from Poland (7th - 21st August 2009)

I spent 2 weeks at Marybert School teaching English. Also I visited the children living at the orphanage at Marybert, as well as I learnt how Mysmallhelp works and what their main projects are. These 2 weeks with Mysmallhelp taught me how Mysmallhelp works and gave me ideas how to be useful, how to help most if I manage to come back to Nepal again.

I came to Mysmallhelp with the intention of teaching kids so that they can practice their English with a foreigner who speaks with a different accent; also I wanted to share my world with them. I found working a new role for myself namely as, as person looking after the kids in the orphanage or just the one who could organize their afternoon, after-school activities.

On the whole, I just loved cooperating with Mysmallhelp whose members were always ready to offer help, advice and taught me things about Nepal and the needs of the kids there. These 2 weeks were a short time, however, and sometimes it might help if Mysmallhelp clearly defined the most important roles volunteers could play, stating precisely what their tasks should be.