Integral Heart Family has been working in Guatemala since 2011. Our school, which is hosting classes for our 85 sponsored kids is also operating as a drop center for supplies for the main rescue center for the victims of the volcano. We are sending medical supply and food deliveries to one center which has 676 refugees in Alotenango, Guatemala. Our plan is short-term support while this center is occupied and longer-term support in helping the affected persons relocate to their new homes.
Volcan de Fuego, or Volcano of Fire, spewed a 10km-long stream of red-hot lava and shot out a thick plume of black smoke and ash on Sunday Jun 3rd that rained down onto several regions and the capital, Guatemala City, 30km away from the hardest-hit area. There are thousands of homeless who are in urgent need of medical care, food, water and shelter.
We are working with one of the two main rescue and relief centers in Alotenango Guatemala. Our short-term plan over the coming weeks is to send medical supplies (as requested by the doctors there), food, vegetables and clothing to the largest refugee center (where we have a staff person on the inside. Our longer-term plan is to partner with a home-building NGO to support the building of new homes and the relocation of the refugees.
To relieve the immediate suffering of those affected by the lava and ash and then to help these 51 families get back into their own homes again.
