A letter from Carlos Cardenas Martinez in Nicaragua
November 2011
“Unless the Lord builds the home, they labor in vain who build it,
unless the Lord guards the city, the Watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1–2).
Sisters and brothers in Christ, I greet you through this letter that intends to be merely a testimony of the healing power of your compassion and solidarity for thousands of the poorest families confronting the worst climatic crisis of our times.
During October and November 2011 intense rains that caused flooding and mudslides caused a disaster that put hundreds of humble families into mourning. Once again the disaster exposed the vulnerability that characterizes our model of development.
This tragedy forced more than 500,000 families to evacuate their homes; it left more than 700,000 without a roof over their heads; it caused several thousand to lose their household goods and their already precarious food reserves; and it added to the losses of almost 70 percent of small farmers’ subsistence crops and small livestock.
Curiously, this phenomenon broke the record of rainfalls caused by the major disasters of last 10 years. It also tested the humanitarian joint response mechanism of Christian churches in the region. In the first week of intense rains the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) office in Nicaragua received many phone calls and papers on early alerts, several letters requesting material support, and emails from the southeast of Mexico, and from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
But how does PDA's personnel react to a multiple and large-scale emergency that is simultaneously affecting several countries? What is the response mechanism?
Actually, it’s clear that confusion—nurtured by a lack of information and uncertainty—reigns in the first hours; then chaos strikes in the middle of what disaster experts used to call the crisis stage. Then we prepare to wait for the official government declaration of a state of emergency while continuing to follow weather forecasts and at the same time monitoring calls and reports coming from our own Rapid Response Team and inviting them to meet and start discussions about the situation. This includes the possibility of deployment of assessment teams on the ground in close coordination with local churches, their pastors and community leaders.
Eventually during the first 24 hours PDA usually receives additional information from PC(USA) mission co-workers who serve as regional liaisons, based here in Latin America, which is a very useful resource. During this event, in order to have a fresh perspective directly from the ground, as a PDA-deployed resource I personally visited flooded settlements, several camps, shelters, villages and cities in three countries during the crisis stage.
This letter was inspired by conversations on survival with many families of communities in El Salvador, which today—and with the support of organized civil society—demand that Central America be acknowledged by the United Nations as an especially vulnerable region and be recognized as such as stipulated by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
In El Salvador PDA joined the Initial Assessment Team of the Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance for Central America, now under the coordination of the Lutheran Salvadoran Bishop Medardo Gomez.
Visits to communities and shelter facilities of the coastal zone of the province of La Paz gave us the first view of the troubles faced by the evacuated families, permitting us to confirm the preliminary data provided by first responders.
It is during the accompaniment in situ with evacuated families—sharing their fears, worries, and uncertainties—that we start to identify gaps in assistance, the presence of other actors, and local capacities and vulnerabilities that allow us to measure the damage and develop a vision of the potential response. It also allows us to envision the transition from emergency to the early rehabilitation and the demobilization of the families toward the return and the "normalization" of their lives.
On this occasion, I confess, that on my way back home I felt myself affected and deeply worried, due to the fact that those communities visited are located along coastlines of the Gulf of Fonseca, presenting scarce possibilities of being able to receive an appropriate assistance for early rehabilitation. This is due to the fact that they are located in zones of marginal production and chronic unemployment, where the inhabitants depend on fishing and capturing crabs from swamps and mangroves, or on seasonal sugar cane harvests, or on exporting crops of melon and watermelon and also producing small quantities of basic food staples for subsistence on exhausted soils.
While visiting an affected zone a few community leaders and families who had been evacuated invited us to have a talk with the board of the shelter that they call “El Samaritano #2” in the community of El Bordo Chele. We started the conversation asking about the current situation of the facilities and security and protection issues, and later on we asked about their immediate plans. Pablo Andrade told us: “Right now we do not want to return to our house because El Samaritano [our home community] is very hidden there in the swamps and aid workers do not come there to provide us relief; we will not have access there to food aid and safe drinking water. In the following weeks we figured out there will be a lack of food staples. In addition, the children are sick and are afraid of flooding; we do not want to return because the waters still keep our house flooded, while here we are more visible since we are close to the Pan-American Highway."
After asking if they were not afraid for the safety of their house, Pablo’s young wife, Irene, while feeding their baby boy, answered, “As Christians we trust that this situation will not be permanent. God will provide and God will take care of our home; we believe He stands for us."
This testimony summarizes the Presbyterian belief of hope in the midst of chaos. There will always be solidarity with the suffering of the poorest and most vulnerable.
PDA designated funds for the rapid response funds appeal (RRF) are to be managed by ACT Alliance El Salvador and Guatemala. PDA also facilitated contacts and communication with Presbyterians in the United States looking for opportunities to support communities in the south of Honduras (Choluteca, Valle). In western Nicaragua it is expected that a proposal designed by CEPAD for communities in Chinandega will probably receive support for early recovery from programming resources of PDA under CEPAD’s auspices.
The test was overcome in this scenario of unpredictable complexity and with this letter I want to raise our prayers to our living God with gratitude for His Grace that has touched many hearts, making it possible to protect and save lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people in these communities.
Carlos Cárdenas M.
PDA representative/Latin America and Caribbean Region
PC(USA) mission co-worker with CEPAD
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 11
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