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Ecuador Earthquake Response Helping Compassion-assisted Children and Their Families After the April 16 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake in Ecuador In the face of major destruction and pain, Compassion is mobilizing resources to meet the needs of affected children and families in Ecuador. You can play a significant role in addressing this crisis. Photo: The destructive force of the quake is evident in this collapsed building at the Colaboradores De Dios Student Center in Manta, Ecuador.
SPRING 2016
(The following was compiled from Ecuadorian government reports and firsthand Compassion Ecuador inspections.) On the evening of April 16, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck 17 miles southeast of the city of Muisne, Ecuador, impacting six provinces along the nation’s western coastline, bringing down hundreds of buildings, severely damaging roads and bridges, knocking out electricity and other utilities, injuring more than 30,000 and taking the lives of more than 600.
COMPASSION ECUADOR MOBILIZES IMMEDIATELY At the same time, Compassion International Ecuador (CIE) began mobilizing all the resources at its disposal to respond to the disaster.
Ecuador’s government quickly mobilized its military and local responders to aid citizens, search for the missing, set up temporary shelters, mobile hospitals and local donation centers, assess damage and begin repairs to blocked roadways so that aid could reach the remote coastal regions.
Three Compassion child beneficiaries lost their lives in the devastation. Eighty-seven registered children were injured or otherwise affected by the quake’s impact. Forty-three beneficiary homes were totally destroyed, while 47 others were damaged. Ten of Compassion’s church partners – serving 3,647 children – saw their facilities totally destroyed. Nine other church partners – serving 3,235 children – experienced significant damage to their facilities. Three others suffered minor damage. The quake toppled the elevated water towers and storage tanks at multiple child development centers.
As of Tuesday, May 3, the Ecuadorian government reported 660 deaths, 23 persons missing, 51,376 people requiring health care, 4,605 people injured and treated in the first 72 hours, 22,754 people in shelters, 113 people rescued alive and 560 school buildings affected (166 with medium to severe damage).
Thankfully, the CIE headquarters in Quito and the regional offices in Guayaquil and San Lorenzo were not damaged nor were operations impacted, although significant effects of the earthquake were experienced in Guayaquil 150 miles south of the quake’s epicenter.
RELIEF SUPPLIES FOR STRICKEN AREAS Compassion International Ecuador field staff load trucks with food staples and water supplies for delivery to earthquake-affected areas shortly after the April 16 earthquake. Survival kits have been packaged and delivered to beneficiary families at 24 of the church partners in the Manabí province. Compassion church partners in the Chimborazo highlands delivered aid to Manabí area.
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The CIE staff immediately began reaching out to our church partners in the affected area who serve more than 13,000 beneficiaries. In spite of downed communications lines in many parts of the coastal provinces, the response team began building an assessment of damage. Compassion’s church partners sent child development center workers out to survey homes and determine the status of all registered children and their families. The CIE headquarters dispatched field staff to travel to the affected area to support church partner workers in their response and to assist with impact assessment.
To date, the following Compassion relief efforts have been accomplished:
• 1,820 survival kits have been packaged and delivered to beneficiary families at 24 of the church partners in Manabí. In addition to these kits, church partners from Chimborazo in the highlands of Ecuador collected Severe damage occurred in Muisne, food and water the community nearest the epicenter, supplies and as well as the Esmeraldas area. sent them to aid beneficiaries in April 16, 2016 Esmeraldas Magnitude 7.8 earthquake Manabí. Muisne Epicenter 27 km (17 miles) southeast of Muisne, Ecuador
• Compassion Ecuador staff The Manta area of members the Manabí province Manta continue to appears to be the support church hardest-hit among Compassion centers. pastors and staff Damage assessments with kits of nonGuayaquil are ongoing. ECUADOR perishable food, hygiene items and water containers. Significant effects of the earthquake were For the 27 child experienced in Guayaquil as well, 250 km development (150 miles) south of the epicenter. centers in Manabí, they have provided 309 families of Severe damage the churches’ occurred in pastors and staff members with supplies that Muisne, the community nearest the epicenter will support up to seven family members for 15 as well as the Esmeraldas area to the north. days. However, the Manta area of the Manabí province south of the epicenter was the hardest hit among Compassion centers.
COMPASSION’S FIRST RESPONSE: RELIEF The CIE office began preparations to send relief into the affected area, making emergency funds available to church partners so they can address the initial needs of safe water and food for their registered children, their families and the surrounding communities. Compassion Ecuador’s current strategy is to support our church partner pastors and their teams as they re-establish operations and then assist them in effectively meeting the needs of beneficiaries and their families.
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• The water tank at Juan 3:16 Student Center in Montecristi (6 miles southwest of Manta) has also been repaired and is now providing clean water to other church partners and communities nearby. • Emotional and spiritual recovery is also a priority. This week a group of 12 pastors and psychologists from church partners in Manabí began offering group therapy services to all church partner pastors and staff in the area, who have been extremely grateful for the support. • Four of Compassion Ecuador’s field staff members stationed in Quito are originally from the affected area. They will also benefit from the therapeutic support. Page 3
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE Compassion is committed to supporting the children entrusted to our care. Our goal in times of crisis is first to restore stability for the children and families through RELIEF efforts, providing needed food staples and water supplies, medical assistance and temporary shelter. This will be a continuing need in the coming months as municipal infrastructures are restored, supply chains are re-established, places of employment reopen and communities begin moving back to a level of normalcy. Once stability is restored for children and our church partners, we can concentrate on helping them RECOVER from the devastation by helping families rebuild their damaged or destroyed homes and replace missing household items such as furnishings, blankets and appliances. Compassion church partners whose facilities were significantly damaged or totally destroyed will need temporary structures built or acquired in order to reopen and resume developmental activities for the children. Compassion then will work with those church partners to design and rebuild facilities that are better than they were before. Because of Compassion’s extensive experience
following the Haiti earthquake of January 2010, we know how to construct safer structures that comply with international seismic standards. In addition to taking care of the physical, Compassion will be providing TRAUMA COUNSELING to child beneficiaries, their families and our church partners’ workers to help them deal with the issues of trauma and loss felt during and after this disaster. Compassion Ecuador is currently developing long-term strategies to accomplish all three of these efforts – relief, recovery and trauma counseling. The full details and final costs will be known in a matter of weeks and more information will be shared about these plans in the near future. Compassion Ecuador has estimated that the upper range of this need could be about $5 million.
PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER A GIFT Your support and prayers will help bring God’s real peace in this very difficult time. Please prayerfully consider a gift today to help mobilize the resources needed in Ecuador.
COMPASSION CENTERS LOSE THEIR ELEVATED WATER TOWERS Multiple Compassion child development centers in the western provinces of Ecuador saw their elevated water storage towers brought down by the earthquake. Compassion continues to drive water tank trucks into the Manabí province, providing not only safe water, but also bottles for beneficiary families to take and store water to drink at their homes.
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