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Hurricane Stan Response

Puerto San José, Guatemala, where AFSC has given money for antibiotics and anti-fungal medicines. Read more about our relief work. Photo: Association for Education and Development (ASEDE)

In the first weeks of October, Central America was devastated by a combination of tropical storm rains from Hurricane Stan, flooding, mudslides, and volcanic activity.  The result has been widespread loss of life and widespread damage that some are saying is worse than that brought about by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. 

There has been a generalized destruction of homes, roadways, bridges, electric and phone systems, as well as food crops and animals, with the heaviest damage occurring in Guatemala, El Salvador, and the department of Chiapas in Mexico, with significant damage also in Honduras and Nicaragua. 

The current estimates as of this third week of October, with the numbers still rising, are 1,513 dead and missing in Guatemala and another 844 missing and some 59,000 people in shelters, 65 dead in El Salvador with some 54,000 people in shelters, and 8 people dead in Chiapas with another 25,000 in shelters.  The total number of people affected by the damage is in the millions. 

AFSC has long-standing partners that have launched urgent appeals for assistance and to which it feels called to respond.  Our response with our partners is focusing, for now, on providing emergency assistance for the tens of thousands located in make-shift shelters. 

Guatemala

AFSC has formed a partnership with Haverford College's Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) to respond to the devastation in the community of Panbaj with which the CPGC has had a long-standing relationship. 

AFSC also already released $2,000 last week to the Association for Education and Development (ASEDE) for purchase of food and medicines for people in shelters.  ASEDE is a long-time partner working in community health and development in rural areas of Guatemala, primarily with people who were returnee refugees during the civil war, and has a strong presence in the areas deeply affected.  AFSC supported ASEDE in its work training and creating community health promoters, and also in its well-coordinated response to Hurricane Mitch in 1998. 

El Salvador

Depending on the resources we receive, AFSC will be working with three partner organizations that have significant experience in emergency work as a result of their response to the earthquakes in 2001.   The first is the Coordinadora Bajo Lempa, a campesino-run organization deeply involved in development, environmental, and peace issues in one of the hardest hit areas of El Salvador. 

The second is the Foundation for Cooperation and Community Development in El Salvador (CORDES), an established rural development NGO and a member of the Salvadoran Community Marketing Network, with close links to COMAL, the Honduran alternative community marketing NGO founded by AFSC. 

The third group is the Association of Community Promoters (APROCSAL), which focuses on community health programs in rural and marginalized urban areas. 

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