00:03When the earthquake happened, we were working, we were in the classrooms.
00:08When the shaking started, the first thing he did was evacuate the children.
00:13I came out naked from here, it was from here that I put on my clothes, because I was saying,
00:20The tremor is called "se inca," he goes kneeling, because I thought I wasn't going to reach even a gram.
00:26arrive.
00:26The calls weren't going through, that was terrible, the teachers were fainting, the children were fainting, and that was a
00:36craziness.
00:37This neighborhood was left with almost all the houses destroyed.
00:42And then the roof lifted up, it almost started to split, and that's when I arrived and...
00:50I left there,
00:51And I'm dead, let whatever it is end.
00:59They told us we had to leave our homes, and even here all my neighbors are sleeping on the street.
01:07I owe more than 100 million pesos in debt, and this was, since it's a family home,
01:16Well, I loaned to my father, loaned to my brother, loaned from myself, so this was a joint construction.
01:25And the banks haven't told us about any relief yet, to be honest.
01:31In Chocó, the 7.4 magnitude earthquake left 13 people dead and 309 injured as of August 14.
01:39no injuries and no missing persons.
01:40There are approximately 19,300 people affected, more than 8,300 families impacted in 20 of the 31 municipalities of the
01:48department,
01:48with more than 2,000 homes destroyed and 10 vehicular bridges affected, according to the Chocó government.
01:54In Quibdó, the northern area was hit the hardest; more than 500 families lost their homes.
01:59The mayor's office initially designated the boxing arena as a temporary shelter for those affected,
02:04However, it had to be evacuated on the night of Thursday, August 13, due to the rains.
02:08Today we are at the Quibdó Coliseum in the Garden.
02:13We've been relocated here because we were previously in the boxing coliseum.
02:19We were there, but because of the rains that obviously didn't stop, it flooded and they relocated us here.
02:25At midnight we were already waiting for the mayor of Chocó to arrive, and he arrived
02:321.
02:32We arrived here around 4 in the morning and that's when we were able to sleep with the children in our arms.
02:37The rain stopped, what mattresses.
02:43Where we are it's very hot, there are no decent bathrooms, no decent showers, and the children are getting sick.
02:50I had arranged for a first-aid kit to be left overnight because some people leave and...
02:56We agreed to meet at the hostel.
02:57Then, this afternoon the Red Cross arrived and told us that through a
03:03WhatsApp link
03:03We could write if someone was ill, had an allergic reaction, or had a fever.
03:09And through that means we were able to get an answer as to whether there is anyone having seizures
03:14We can talk through WhatsApp because they didn't give us a phone number, because sometimes the phone is broken.
03:20who never answers it.
03:21The community questions the work of government entities in addressing the emergency.
03:25Although many say the mayor's office has made its presence felt in the area, they feel the solutions are not clear.
03:30The most remote neighborhoods of Quibdó continue to wait for the presence of the State.
03:34In the Flores neighborhood of Buenaños, aid began to arrive three days after the earthquake.
03:38It had been very lonely here. Starting yesterday, people began to come and bring us lunches.
03:45They also brought us some dinners last night, and today you who are approaching us here
03:51And a foundation that also brought us toiletries, brought us some mattresses.
03:59As a community, we feel that there is a lack of coordination between relief agencies.
04:06Because you see on social media that aid is coming to Chocó, that trucks are coming, that everything is coming
04:13type of aid,
04:14But they haven't really reached these sectors.
04:18So we don't know what's happening, how they're organizing it, and who it's actually being given to.
04:25From the moment I arrived, they welcomed me with hygiene kits, mats, and things like that.
04:32But I don't really know if it will remain just promises, because we have seen irresponsibility from the mayor's office.
04:40Sometimes they don't answer us, the food arrives late, like I said, the food that would be for children who are still
04:45They don't eat rice,
04:46There's no soup, no baby bottles, and they won't let us deliver everything that's been donated to them.
04:52we staff,
04:53but they withhold it and we don't receive that help.
04:56We here in the department have seen many families who have suffered from many disasters, fires,
05:05Destroyed houses that have fallen down and the truth is you hardly hear that the support has been, but rather, every
05:14who,
05:15Each person, each victim, has to figure out how to rebuild their house, their home.
05:24So they had said that generally if we were here we absolutely had to stay in order to wait
05:31the help.
05:31If we left they would eliminate us, delete us, but then they said no, that we had already gone through the entire list
05:38And then, once we were on a computer, they couldn't delete us.
05:42But most people are doing that; they're arriving and taking out the mattresses.
05:46Well, if they arrive they have to stay, and there are even visiting hours for people who want to visit us.
05:51visit,
05:51Since it's in the afternoon, you can't leave the shelter.
05:55If when you arrive you say you're working, then you can go out, but the rest can't go out for anything at all.
06:03In the hardest-hit neighborhoods, people are organizing community pits,
06:06It converts coliseums into shelters and neighbors open their homes to those who have lost them.
06:10They sustain, hour by hour, what the cracked tracks and the intermittent signal prevent from arriving on time.
06:15We spend the whole day here, where they can cook, they cook, and we share everything we have.
06:22We're going to break up what you brought.
06:26And where we can't cook here, like me, who can't get there, they bring me.
06:31For example, they gave us the coordinates and then I called people together to be here in
06:41the time to prepare the food.
06:45Everything is voluntary, because that's why an association was created, for people to collaborate on these things, for people to help out.
06:55Four or five houses, we cook the food together there. Another group like the Rodríguez family, who are six brothers who lost their
07:04housing.
07:05They're cooking over there. And so, we're supporting each other.
07:12If you don't have rice, you have salt and you bring it. And that's how we're supporting each other.
07:17But we also have babies; here we have four-month-old babies, three-year-old babies, and two-year-old babies.
07:23Among friends, neighbors, siblings. That's how we are as friends.
07:30So one cannot deny these things, because that is why God brought us here.
07:35union.
07:36To share with people who know how to prepare some of these things.
07:54Thanks for watching the video!
07:54Thank you!
07:54Thank you!
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