For the Llove of Llamas

PJT is donating the funds raised from our Llovable Llama campaign to assist 150 families in the community of San Benito, Chincha, with provision and maintenance of a water supply system and the installation of an alternative drainage system. PJT is donating the money to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and its host country implementing partner, Manos Unidas Contra La Pobreza.

Over 5,462 families in the Chinca region were affected by the earthquake and 90% of the houses in the area were destroyed. At present, most of the families of San Benito live in temporary straw shelters that were built after the earthquake. The already precarious water pipes suffered from several ruptures and pits for water storage were affected by material that fall from adobe walls. This worsened the access of the population to potable water, making them more dependent from the tank trucks coming from the city of Chincha Water Company and selling water by canister. It is worth mentioning that before the earthquake, the community was connected to water distribution network that came from the city of Chincha, but they only received water for a few hours at night. There is an evident lack of water to cover all the needs of the families. Moreover, the price of water sold by tank truck has increased.

None of the houses in San Benito have sanitation facilities, which is raising the risk for contamination, especially for the particularly vulnerable population such as children, who are exposed to parasitic and infectious diseases. These health problems, which are common in populations of scarce resources, and who live in warm climates, are worsened by the inadequate conditions of hygiene, environmental health and potable water supply, and often result in diarrheic infection in the children population.

The earthquake was Peru’s worst in 37 years, killing over 500 across the country’s southern Ica desert region, injuring some 1,500 and leaving an estimated 176,000 people homeless. Power supplies, telecommunications and road links were severely disrupted. 

Food and water were scarce across Pisco, a city of about 116,000, and elsewhere. At one point hundreds of soldiers had to be deployed to restore calm to the streets of impacted areas where hungry quake victims looted aid trucks and markets. The temblor occurred in one of the most seismically active regions in the world.  In 1970, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake high in the Peruvian Andes triggered a landslide that buried the town of Yungay and killed 66,000 people.