While the media attention has faded just as quickly as the receding floodwaters, Peru still needs billions of dollars to rebuild infrastructure and help devastated families.
The figures of people killed (at least 114) and left homeless (over 185,000) have stopped climbing, but the real work in Peru is just beginning. Over 1 million people were somehow harmed by the torrential rains, with over 240,000 homes and 2,100 schools requiring repair or rebuilding.
The agricultural industry which produces not only staple foods but also the superfoods which we sell, was hammered as tens of thousands of irrigation channels were damaged or destroyed and over 70,000 hectares of crops damaged, over 28,000 of which were completely lost. According to Reuters:
The reconstruction of areas of Peru hit by severe floods in recent months will cost $3 billion in the short term and up to $9 billion over five years, the country’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, said in a radio interview on Friday.
Peruvian Naturals has just donated 3 percent of April earnings to the relief effort as pledged last month. However the Peruvian embassy in the United States has ended its pledge drive, so we have a new channel to help rebuild.
The embassy informed us that any of the NGOs on this website are recommended:
www.globalgiving.org/peru-floods-2017/
We are donating through CARE for no particular reason other than we had heard of them before. But as indicated all of those charities were approved by Peru’s embassy.
If you read Spanish, the best website to follow developments from the coastal El Niño damage and relief efforts is unasolafuerza.pe.
Peru thanks you for your support!