Refugio de Paz
Refugio de Paz
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Richard and Cathy Shephard and four boys lived in El Salvador from 1999 to early 2002. With the advent of the two massive earthquakes in January and February, 2001, their FCF project Refugio de Paz focused its initiatives on earthquake-related relief programs: the distribution of aid and presentations of mental and emotional health programs for people who lost their homes, possessions, and even loved ones. They worked in conjunction with other local and international organizations such as Plan International, and ONUVA. In addition they helped with the distribution of medical equipment, wheel chairs, clothes and food collected in the States by another FCF project, Cheer up Mission. In the weeks following the earthquake, Refugio de Paz hosted volunteers who came from the USA (Louisiana and Minnesota) to help in the relief efforts. Some were medical students, one a Shriner clown and so forth. As part of this extensive Cheer Up mission, presentations were organized for the young earthquake survivors, which featured clown and puppet shows, skits and songs, held in children's hospitals, orphanages, shelters, nursing homes, and outlying villages. The Ministry of Health acknowledged that mental and emotional healing is one of the greatest needs after a disaster of this sort, and local television filmed one of our programs for the evening news. |
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Channel 4 filming our program and the reaction from the crowd. |
Refugio de Paz volunteers communicating comfort in song |
Meanwhile we used the opportunity of the presentations to distribute to the attendees items from the three 40-foot shipping containers full of humanitarian aid shipped to El Salvador by Cheer Up Mission: mattresses, clothes, food, wheel chairs and medical equipment. The El Salvadorian military provided open flat bed trucks to transport these items to different villages where the programs were presented.
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One of the more memorable trips took us 3 hours through dust-laden roads to a far away village devastated by the quake. |
Richard with homeless folks, after distributing to them beans, rice, oil, laundry soap, clothes and blankets. |
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Despair reflected in the faces of these two young boys. |
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16-year-old Angie, bonding with the attendees after performing in a skit. |
Praying together for comfort. |
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Cathy fitting this little boy with new clothes at Jardin de Amor orphanage. |
This little guy, who was buried underground in the quake, survived. |
San Salvador, El Salvador
