The Catch 22 of natural disasters for poor countries

Weekend events gave us another example of a poor nation who has trouble taking preventative measures against natural disasters. Instead, when the disaster happens, it spends all of it's resources cleaning up the damage. It becomes a cyclical pattern that a country is unable to stop.

El Salvador suffered severe flooding over the weekend. Downpours of rain caused giant mudslides. The death toll from the flooding now stands at 130. In addition, 7,500 people are without homes.

From the IPS, writer Edgardo Ayala explains the poor warning systems that need to be upgraded.

Environmentalist Ángel Ibarra, president of the Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña (Salvadoran Ecological Unit, or UNES), cited a World Bank study which estimates that 90 percent of the population lives in areas at high relative risk of death from two or more natural hazards.

But Ibarra said the problem of natural disasters is magnified in the country because of the serious environmental deterioration on one hand, and the lack of policies to pull people out of poverty and social exclusion on the other.

Most of the victims of catastrophes like flooding and mudslides are poor people who live in shacks in dangerous areas along riverbanks or hillsides.

He also told IPS that El Salvador lacks adequate disaster prevention and preparedness policies. "When these problems happen, it's always as if it were the first time. We have a 'picking up the dead' policy. We only react after something happens."

So although El Salvador, located on the earthquake-prone Ring of Fire and in the path of hurricanes, frequently suffers natural disasters, followed up by reports calling for an improved early warning system and other prevention measures, the system rarely functions when it is needed.

"We also suffer from socio-environmental and institutional vulnerability," added Ibarra, pointing to the dearth of coordination between the different state agencies.

Starting last Wednesday, the weather reports were forecasting heavy rain over the weekend, and the government declared a "green alert." But the alert was not upgraded to orange until late Sunday morning, when deaths had already been reported in several parts of the country.

The national meteorological service, SNET, forecast 100 mm of rain. But late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, 355 mm fell in just four hours – a downpour even worse than the rainfall that accompanied Hurricane Mitch in 1998, when 400 mm fell in four days.

A hockey player heads to El Salvador with World Vision

One of our favorite non-Red Wings hockey players was sent by World Vision to the mountains of El Salvador. Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Senators had already sponsored a few children through World Vision. The charity asked him to participate in a trip to film a TV commercial that will be shown in the Ottawa area to gain more child sponsorships.

As well as working with the poor for a few days, Fisher was also able to see some success stories from sponsored children. Including a young woman who was able to sell eggs at a market with the help of some World Vision provided chickens. From this story that we found at Canada.com, writer Wayne Scanlan details the trip.

In South America, Fisher was more or less anonymous, causing a stir just as an outsider visiting some of the poorest villages, barely beyond the bustling capital city of San Salvador.

``Just five minutes outside the city, there is a major, drastic change,'' Fisher says. ``Extreme poverty.''

Fisher has sponsored children through World Vision in the past, helping to pay for basic needs and education, so, when the organization invited him to see El Salvador in the flesh, he was all over it.

``I've always wanted to go somewhere where the conditions are poor, a place like Africa,'' Fisher says. ``Maybe I'll go there next time.''

The rugged Christian from Peterborough, Ont., comes by this missionary zeal naturally. Fisher's uncle, David Fisher, was the chapel leader of the Toronto Blue Jays for 29 years. Mike's sister and father have done missionary work together in Ecuador.

n El Salvador, Fisher spent the first working day visiting villages of squalor, seeing first hand the living conditions of the poor. The conditions of the land alone was a challenge.

``We went up in trucks into the mountains,'' Fisher says. ``It was quite the ride even by truck, and the local people walk in. It takes four hours for this one family just to get into town.''

He won't forget visiting the tiny shack of one family, no food on the premises and eight children living in the one room, about 10 feet by 10 feet.

Volunteering to help build El Salvador

A father and son were profiled today in a Wisconsin paper for their service work in El Salvador. Al and Jesse Kvitek of Mansfield joined the group Thrivent Builds Worldwide.

Further information on their mission work can be seen at the blogThrivent Builds. Our snippet of their trip comes from the Mansfield News Herald.

"Volunteering in El Salvador really grabbed my heart," said Al Kvitek. "One-third of the population of El Salvador lives in substandard housing, and by our American standards, the Salvadorans have very little. In spite of that, the people we met were so generous and so excited to live in their own home."

Father and son traveled to El Salvador Nov. 1 to 9, to start the construction of a community of homes with families in need, thanks to an alliance between Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Habitat for Humanity International. Because it's very difficult for landless Salvadoran families to own a home, Habitat for Humanity El Salvador has developed a holistic neighborhood model providing families with access to land, a house, basic services and social infrastructure such as green areas and a community center. To support this movement, Thrivent Financial committed up to $1.3 million to Habitat for Humanity El Salvador to build a model community. Eighteen months from now, there will be a new community with as many as 75 homes in Santa Ana, El Salvador, all supported by the Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity alliance and built by hundreds of Thrivent Financial member volunteers.

Al Kvitek, a Thrivent Financial associate serving Lutherans and their family members in Clark and Wood counties, and his son Jesse Kvitek, a Thrivent Financial consultant serving Lutherans and their family members in St. Croix County, and 26 other service-minded Thrivent Financial representatives kicked off the construction of this new community in November. For these representatives, whose job is to help people with their financial security, going to El Salvador to help more families buy a safe and affordable home put a whole new twist on that role. Rather than meeting with clients in the office, the American volunteers cleared a large jungle-like field of brush and trees with machetes and pick axes, an area that will soon become the foundation for many families' homes. Some of the team also assisted local Salvadoran construction masons in building a community center by leveling dirt, digging trenches, and laying block walls.

As the field was cleared and the community center was built, relationships grew with the local Salvadorans. The team enjoyed building with volunteers from a local Lutheran and a Presbyterian church, as well as with the partner families who will live in this community. "I didn't expect to find so many similarities between Americans and Salvadorans," said Jesse Kvitek, "but I realized that people are people wherever you are. They laugh the same, cry the same, have the same concerns and love for their families. The language barrier is not really a barrier at all."

This team of volunteers also had the opportunity to put down their work gloves and have some free time to attend a Lutheran church service on Sunday, go on a boat ride, tour Mayan ruins, learn how to make a favorite Salvadoran food called pupusas and spend a day on the Costa de Sol beach.

The nine-day experience in Central America invigorated both Kviteks, and both plan to share this experience with as many people as possible to encourage others to get involved in similar service work and to raise awareness of the burden of poverty housing while building decent, affordable homes worldwide.

Solidarity Network program insufficient

from the Latin America Press

Government subsidies fail to reduce poverty that plagues 35 percent of the population

“Social work won’t complement anything, but instead will be the base of everything,” said President Antonio Saca when he began his term in June 2004, after announcing he would combat poverty head on. But economists and civil society representatives charge that this promise “is not reflected in the social public investment” and that the programs implemented will not get many out of poverty.

Specialists also estimate that the Solidarity Network program, a fundamental pillar in Saca’s social strategy, “is not sustainable” since the funds are meager and depend greatly on international donations and loans.

Since October 2005, the Solidarity Network has given monthly subsidies between US$15 and $20 to qualifying families, according to the number of children they have, in exchange for sending their children to primary school and accompanying their youngest children to health centers, while introducing potable water services and electricity in these communities.

Cecilia Gallardo, commissioned by the executive branch for the Social Area, explained that unlike other programs, the Solidarity Network does not just distribute financial aid, but “seeks to break the vicious cycle of poverty, reducing shortages and providing opportunities.”

In the program’s first two phases, between October 2005 and February 2008, the government invested $49 million between aid and basic infrastructure, benefiting 50,000 families in the 47 poorest municipalities (out of 100) in the country. For December 2009, a total of 100,000 homes in 100 municipalities are expected to benefit, costing $200 million.

Mario Paniagua, director of the Intersectorial Association for Economic Development and Social Progress, said that while the Solidarity Network is positive, it’s “completely insufficient,” adding that the way to combat poverty “is not with subsidies,” but with sustainable economic growth, the creation of jobs and allocation of resources to social areas.

“As long as no jobs are created, no program to combat poverty will be successful,” warned Paniagua, who is also coordinator of the El Salvador chapter of the international organization Social Watch. “These plans do not address the root of the problem.”

Appeasing acts
The United Nations Development Program report, “Path to the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals in El Salvador,” based on official statistics, indicates that in 2005 extreme and relative poverty affected 35 percent of the population, though data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in 2004 revealed that of the 5.9 million Salvadorans, 40.4 percent of the households were poor and 15.6 percent were extremely poor.

Jeanette Alvarado, director of the Maquilishuat Foundation, dedicated to promoting extensive healthcare, believes that President Saca’s promise has dwindled. “What’s said is not reflected in the amounts destined for social investment,” Alvarado complained. “There is no state social policy to reduce poverty; there are appeasing acts.”

According to ECLAC’s Latin America Social Panorama 2007 report, of the 21 countries analyzed in the region, El Salvador has the lowest public social spending between 2004 and 2005, with just 5.6 percent of the gross domestic product.

Government data estimates a 6 percent unemployment rate, which is hard to believe for social activists who claim that between 300 and 500 Salvadorans emigrate every day, principally to the United States, in search for work opportunities and better salaries.