Relief Efforts

The Orinocco River, the second largest river in South America has started to flood since early June. It has already made more than 10,000 Amazon Indians and local people homeless. It was reported that the rise in water level was more than three metre and 4,000 hectares of farmland were estimated to be destroyed. Master was concerned about the suffering victims and immediately instructed the executive group of the International Association to contact the relevant departments to find out the practical needs of the people.

Fellow practitioners in Costa Rica and Panama, in accordance with Master's instructions, quickly formed a Disaster Relief Group. They immediately went to Rio Orinocco, the flooded area on the border of Venezuela and Brazil, to visit the local people to find out more about the extent of the damages. It was known that the most affected areas were the Esmerada and the Platanal. The residents were mainly Yekuana and Yanomami Indians. The latter tribe was the most seriously affected and had the greatest number of victims.

The Disaster Relief Group had expressed Master's concern to Mr. Angel Fridays, the Minister of Security of Venezuela, and donated twenty thousand US dollars as a disaster relief fund. The Minister of Security said: "In the flooded areas along the borders of Venezuela and Brazil, the most seriously affected were the native Indians. They wore special clothing and ate differently from ordinary people. Although the disaster was serious, no one died." There was already a crisis team in Venezuela to take care of the disaster. He was very grateful to Master for Her concern. Mr. Jose Guillermo? Andueza, the Minister of Internal Affairs, was also very grateful for Master's charitable act and Her concern for the flood victims.

It took two hours to fly from the capital to port puerto Ayacucho. From there, one had to rely on small planes to go to the flooded areas. The area was full of forests, with deep cliffs and high mountains. There were no roads and all supplies had to be transported by wooden boats. After reporting to Master, She instructed the working group to purchase clothing, hygienic supplies, cooking utensils and to hire boats to transport these things to the disaster areas. At the same time, contact was also made with the local country mayor to work in cooperation with her. She and her three assistants accompanied the Disaster Relief Group. The disaster relief fund we used to fill three major needs. The most needed item was food: rice, noodles, milk, sugar and coffee..,etc. Then there clothing, hammocks, mosquito nets and medicine were also purchased.

Altogether there were more than ten thousand victims scattered around the remote areas of the river and mountains. The supplies donated by Master were the first to arrived. Therefore, they really thanked Master from the bottom of their hearts. This flooding was serious that even in the past two hundred years it had never been so bad. Usually the Indians would not ask help from outside people. This time, because there was really nothing to eat, they asked for help from the local county mayor. The Yuca tree potato and banana trees were all destroyed and it would take two years for them to recover.

At the moment, the local people are infected with infectious diseases such a malaria, dengue fever and dysentery. Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association were interviewed by a Venezuela people for help, one person one dollar loving heart charity activity to help the local Indians pass through this crisis.