La Mosquitia Hurricane Aid Report From Rotary Club, Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras

La Mosquitia Hurricane Aid Report From Rotary Club, Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras, December 24th 1998

Para mi es grato reportar que el Club Rotario de Santa Rosa de Copán despachó hoy los siguientes donativos para el municipio de Wampusirpi en la Mosquitia:


 
ARTICULO
CANTIDAD
VALOR
LBS.
Frijol 
Maíz 
Harina 
Harina 
Manteca 
Azucar 
Café 
Café 
Sal 
Spaghetti 
Salcina 
Sopa Maggi 
Fósforos 
Bolsas plásticas 
 
15 
100 
38 
48 
100 
20 
20 
20 
75 
17 
 
sacos 
quintales 
quintales 
arrobas 
cajas 
quintales 
fardos 
bolsas 
fardos 
cajas 
cajas 
cajas 
fardos 
fardos 
 
L.7,165.00 
L.10,000.00 
L.10,108.00 
L.3,192.00 
L.17,820.00 
L.6,380.00 
L.10,080.00 
L.420.00 
L.420.00 
L.3,675.00 
L.7,440.00 
L.3,060.00 
L.225.00 
L.1,800.00 
 
1,475 
10,000 
3,800 
1,200 
2,700 
2,000 
480 
20 
500 
750 
400 
225 
10 
120 
 
TOTALES
L.81,785.00
23,820
 
Tales donativos fueron despachados al custodio de Cap. Saúl Antonio Ardón del Ejercito de Honduras para transladarles al Base Aerea de Palmerola pendiente la disponibilidad de helicópteros para entregarles al Wampusirpi.  Les voy a mantener informados sobre el desarollo de este y futuros donativos.

Muy atentamente,
Warren Post
Comité Pro-Ayuda Mosquitia
Club Rotario de Santa Rosa de Copán


Rotary Club Mosquitia Relief Report, December 24th 1998

The Rotary Mosquitia relief effort began on November 3. Realizing that ours was the only city of size in all of Honduras untouched by Hurricane Mitch, and wishing to help in the recovery effort, our club adopted a devastated area unlikely to receive substantial outside help: the isolated jungle villages of the mid-Patuca River valley in the Mosquitia. Within days special accounts were opened in Honduras, Canada and the U.S. and fundraising began in earnest. Many thanks to the Rotary Club of North Sacramento, California, and the clubs of Districts 5360 and 5370 (Alberta) for their invaluable and continuing help with fundraising. Dr. Charles Masur, District 5370 Governor and long time friend of Honduras, quickly secured a timely and important pledge of CDN$20,000, arriving at just the right moment to buoy morale here and give our team the can-do spirit we retain today.

More invaluable assistance came from Ron Mader, author of "Honduras: A Natural Destination" and tireless Hondophile, who posted our original appeal for help for all to see at his high traffic web site (http://www.planeta.com/), and likewise Bob Lewis on his disaster relief bulletin board (http://www.mtgroup.com/lewisbd/relief/). Thanks Ron and Bob!

While our friends in North America got to work, we did too. Many hours were logged by ham radio operator and Rotarian Felipe Morales, HR5FAM, making contact with the far flung Mosquitia villages to obtain an early assessment of needs. One of Felipe's most daunting tasks was to try to make sense of the incomplete and often conflicting reports from the field. Meanwhile, others in our club worked with the Honduran government's regional emergency management committee. Committee president Colonel Alberto Oyuala become an important ally of the Mosquitia relief effort, promising Chinook cargo helicopters and five tons of food aid from western Honduras -- this despite the fact that the Mosquitia lies far outside his committee's zone of responsibility. Col. Oyuala is being reassigned to southern Honduras in early January to direct relief efforts there; he will be missed.

Still others spent hours daily on the telephone and Internet helping to forge the small band of organizations and individuals world wide with an interest in the Mosquitia into an effective and coordinated relief team. A major step in this direction has been the formation of an email distribution list, in which most of the key players participate, share information, and avoid duplication of efforts. (If you would like to subscribe to the list, drop me a line.) Muchas gracias to Raquel Isaula Peralta of the Honduras Sustainable Development Network (http://www.sdnhon.org) for generously donating the technical expertise and Internet list server necessary to make the list a reality, and to Torsten Mark Kowal for the original idea and list of contacts. Many of us work together now due to Torsten bringing us together.

With donations accumulating, a communications network coming together, and a promise of helicopter transport, what could go wrong? A waylaid bank wire, that's what. A critical donation from Alberta was misplaced by our bank for nearly three nail biting weeks. Had this donation arrived on time, we would have had the money needed to fill two Chinooks (12,500 pounds each) and make a relief flight in November. Sadly, it was not to be: our bank didn't find the money until well into December. We have since changed banks.

Looking to the future, our most immediate goal is to complete our "November" airlift; we are making final preparations for departure as I write this. A small group of us will fly on board to insure that the aid arrives safely and is distributed fairly, coordinate with village leaders, and field check our information and our long term aid strategy.

To those of you who have donated, thank you. To those of you who have not had a chance to yet, let me take this opportunity to let you know of our accounts:

IN CANADA --

Account name: Rotary Club Honduras Relief Fund
Account number: 509890042110
Type of account: Canadian dollar checking
Bank: The Bank of Nova Scotia
11140 - 149st
Edmonton, Alberta T5M 1W4
Phone (403) 448-7910
Fax (403) 448-7529

IN THE UNITED STATES --

Account name: Rotary Club of North Sacramento - Honduras Relief Fund
Account number: 0100001221
Type of account: U.S. dollar
Bank: Bank of Sacramento
1750 Howe Avenue, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95825
Phone (916) 648-2100
Short Name: BK SAC SAC
Routing number: 121142779

IN HONDURAS --

Account name: Club Rotario Cuenta Especial Mosquitia
Account number: 1102-512-2
Type of account: Lempira checking
Bank: Banco Atl‡ntida
Santa Rosa de Cop‡n Phone (504) 662-0138
Fax (504) 662-0693

Questions? Comments? Let me know. In the meantime may you have a very merry Christmas and a fine new year.

Sincerely,
Warren Post
Mosquitia Relief Committee
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa de Copan

This web-page was produced, designed & is maintained by Derek A Parent, A Walkabout In The Rio Platano Biosphere, La Mosquitia, Honduras. This page was updated on: December 24th 98.