An update on the relief efforts

Here's a long-overdue post on the hurricane relief efforts and my man Jimbo out east.

Over the passed couple months, I know many of you generously donated thousands of dollars to help families affected by Hurricane Ida through the Aid El Salvador webpage. This is the same NGO that my boss founded back when she was a volunteer and that will be managing the scholarship funds we raise for my community's kids. More on this later, but in the meantime, here's a link.

By now, you might be curious to know the status of the relief projects and the families involved. I am writing now to briefly update you on those efforts and to ensure that your hard-earned cash is going to the hard-working people rebuilding these communities.

First off, the AES cash. I was recently in contact with the folks at AES who explained that we are in the equivalent of relief work limbo, which is all too common after a disaster. If you're following the relief efforts in Haiti, or a few years back with New Orleans, you know how complicated this can get. Basically, this situation is this: we got the cash, we're ready to rebuild, but should we?

Peace Corps staff and AES coordinated efforts to get families the immediate relief they needed in the days and weeks following the disaster. Clothes, mattresses, food and water were all brought to the landslide zone so that families would, at the very least, not have to worry about water sources or where they were going to sleep that night. But rebuilding in an area in which a landslide could plausibly reoccur isn't necessarily the best option, so there is still a great deal to be worked out. Vamos a ver...

Jimbo, on the other hand, doesn't need anyone to tell him what's up. He's knee deep in projects and up on the mountain getting it done like a true Spartan. Recently he teamed up with an organization called Un Techo Para Mi Pais (A Roof For My Country) which builds small, pre-fabricated wood and aluminum houses in high-poverty and disaster areas throughout Latin America. A large group of us are heading there this weekend to get our hands dirty and help out any way we can.

Here's the link again to his blog for more info:

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