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Imagine that in a few hours you lose everything: your home is damaged, and all your material possessions are gone. Fortunately, the loss is material, your loved ones are OK but you are emotionally spent as you witnessed nature destroying everything in its path. This just happened to one of our colleagues, a WWF Guatemala/Mesoamerica GIS Officer
She lives in La Lima where our field office is, in Honduras. This town along with others in Honduras and Guatemala were completely flooded and devastated by the Hurricane/Tropical Storm Eta.
As Eta hit Honduras, our WWF staff was instructed to take shelter and keep us abreast of their wellbeing. With electricity and internet services down, we lost touch with her for about three days; we could only hope that she was safe. Her elderly mother and niece were forced to evacuate their home and take shelter with neighbors in a second floor. For 2.5 days they were locked up in a second floor with their neighbors as the water continued to rise. One week later upon returning home, she has found everything destroyed. They practically lost everything: their furniture, all their kitchen and electrical appliances, the wooden doors of their home, and their personal items, among others. They could only save one bed, which they have been sharing among the three of them since the emergency. Like the majority of Central Americans, she did not have her home insured against disasters. And although she has WWF sponsored health insurance, her mother does not.
As you can imagine, she is physically and mentally exhausted, like many Hondurans and Guatemalans that have endured terrible loss in this most recent show of force from nature. WWF Guatemala/Mesoamerica has no formal way of assisting her in reconstructing her home, however our team has decided to act and join forces personally to help her get her back on her feet. We have organized a fundraiser among ourselves and now would like to reach out to you: WWF’s extended family for that purpose.
Today, another colleague in Honduras, made a quick assessment to identify the most urgent needs, which are the following:
1. A stove (currently she is not even able to cook at home, and depends on the goodwill of neighbors)
2. A bed
3. A refrigerator
4. A carpenter to repair the doors
5. A plumber to fix the drains and the bathrooms
We would be most grateful for any support you are willing to contribute. In a few weeks we will report on the amount of funds raised and what was possible to purchase with them. The balance will be handed over to our affected colleague to contribute to the many additional expenses she will endure to reconstruct her home.
Thank you so much for considering supporting our panda colleague in this moment of need. The violence we have endured in this most recent show of climate change impacts had not been seen for decades. Central America is a very vulnerable part of the world. It is a stark reminder of what we are going to start seeing much more frequently now.
Thank you so much again for your attention to this request, and warm regards,
Andreas Lehnhoff,
Country Director
She lives in La Lima where our field office is, in Honduras. This town along with others in Honduras and Guatemala were completely flooded and devastated by the Hurricane/Tropical Storm Eta.
As Eta hit Honduras, our WWF staff was instructed to take shelter and keep us abreast of their wellbeing. With electricity and internet services down, we lost touch with her for about three days; we could only hope that she was safe. Her elderly mother and niece were forced to evacuate their home and take shelter with neighbors in a second floor. For 2.5 days they were locked up in a second floor with their neighbors as the water continued to rise. One week later upon returning home, she has found everything destroyed. They practically lost everything: their furniture, all their kitchen and electrical appliances, the wooden doors of their home, and their personal items, among others. They could only save one bed, which they have been sharing among the three of them since the emergency. Like the majority of Central Americans, she did not have her home insured against disasters. And although she has WWF sponsored health insurance, her mother does not.
As you can imagine, she is physically and mentally exhausted, like many Hondurans and Guatemalans that have endured terrible loss in this most recent show of force from nature. WWF Guatemala/Mesoamerica has no formal way of assisting her in reconstructing her home, however our team has decided to act and join forces personally to help her get her back on her feet. We have organized a fundraiser among ourselves and now would like to reach out to you: WWF’s extended family for that purpose.
Today, another colleague in Honduras, made a quick assessment to identify the most urgent needs, which are the following:
1. A stove (currently she is not even able to cook at home, and depends on the goodwill of neighbors)
2. A bed
3. A refrigerator
4. A carpenter to repair the doors
5. A plumber to fix the drains and the bathrooms
We would be most grateful for any support you are willing to contribute. In a few weeks we will report on the amount of funds raised and what was possible to purchase with them. The balance will be handed over to our affected colleague to contribute to the many additional expenses she will endure to reconstruct her home.
Thank you so much for considering supporting our panda colleague in this moment of need. The violence we have endured in this most recent show of climate change impacts had not been seen for decades. Central America is a very vulnerable part of the world. It is a stark reminder of what we are going to start seeing much more frequently now.
Thank you so much again for your attention to this request, and warm regards,
Andreas Lehnhoff,
Country Director