Chile Earthquake

Call for international donations

Our fellow Scouts in Chile are currently dealing with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck their country on 27 February 2010. While the fate of many regional members of the Guides and Scouts Association of Chile is not yet known, members in the capital of Santiago have volunteered to assist the National Office of Emergencies and have been carrying out a variety of tasks including removing debris, aiding victims, and packing and distributing emergency food and clothing.

You can support the International Scout Aid by contributing financially, which will assist the Guides & Scouts Association of Chile in offering immediate aid and ongoing rehabiliation to the disaster-ravaged community. A special account has been opened for those who wish to contribute to the aid relief.

Send your donations to:

Name of Bank: BANCO SANTANDER CHILE
Address (Chile): Bandera 140, Santiago, Chile
Account number: 0-051-80008-2
Account name: ASOCIACION DE GUIAS Y SCOUTS DE CHILE
SWIFT Code: BSCHCLRM
Reference: Donación Ayuda Terremoto (Earthquake Aid Donation)

Scouts Australia will not be sending a group to help with the aid efforts as we are not formally trained in Disaster Relief and would be a hindrance to the efforts. If individuals have the skills and want to help then we suggest you get in contact with humanitarian agencies such as the Red Cross or UNICEF who are long standing partners of the Scout Movement. They are organised and have the necessary infrastructure to coordinate the support to Chile from Australia.

Also we will not be giving or attempting to send products or goods at this stage unless we are formally asked. Please refer to the requests made by emergency crews through the humanitarian agencies such as Red Cross or UNICEF.

A letter from Juan F. Yáñez
National Excecutive Director - Guides and Scouts Association of Chile

As National Executive Director and on behalf of the President of our National Board of Directors, Mr. José M. Carvallo, I contact you with the purpose of informing you about the earthquake which hit our nation on February 27th, 2010. It registered 8.8 on the Ms Scale and its epicenter struck the city of Constitución, located in Region del Bío-Bío, approximately 600 kilometers (400 miles) south of Santiago. It affected more than one third of our country’s territory, mainly where most of our association members (girls, boys, young women, young men and adults) are located. This situation worries us terribly because we do not have much information about them.

In the capital city, Santiago, the damage acted upon houses, buildings and various public constructions; freeways, hospitals, schools, and monuments. However, there are other areas of our country, cities such as Talca, Chillán and Concepción, which have been stricken harder and are deeply afflicted as a result of this great natural disaster that brought, as consequence of its power, a devastating tidal wave. This caused tsunami alerts in the coasts of Peru, Ecuador, and the Polynesia and even as far as Japan.

As Guides and Scouts Association of Chile we have been working tirelessly, from the very first moment the ground stopped moving, with all our members, volunteering young and adult women and men. They have been offering their selfless help, carrying out the most diverse tasks in direct coordination with the National Office of Emergencies, which belongs to the Home Office of the Chilean Government. At this time, those involve removing debris, aiding victims, packing and distributing of emergency food and clothing, amongst many others tasks.

We would like to give you our most sincere thanks for the countless e-mail messages and phone calls of support and encouragement in these trying and difficult times, as well as the condolences for those who have lost their lives.

Many guides and/or scouts associations have contacted us to offer their help, be it human or economical. We would like to tell you we have many eager hands to help and work, however, our financial and material resources, which aid our labor of civic duty and service to the affected community, are very limited. Therefore, we have been able to provide a bank account for all of our Guide and Girl Scout sisters, as well as our Scout brothers, for those who wish and are able to cooperate with our mission in our greatest time of need.

Once again, many thanks for your sincere signs of solidarity, sisterhood and brotherhood, they will be transmitted to all of our guides and scouts all across the country. We are confident that God will give us the strength we need to recover and rise up, once again as a nation; from this challenge nature presented us.

Sincerely yours in scouting,

Juan F. Yáñez
National Excecutive Director
Asociación de Guías y Scouts de Chile
(Guides and Scouts Association of Chile)

* All photos courtesy of Associated Press.