There
is no fast access to La Nueva Candelaria. At best, the journey
to this remote rural community on the Guatemalan Pacific Coast
is slow and tedious. The paved road ends on the outskirts of
the small town of Retalhuleu. From here, it's a bumpy trip across
gravel and earth for more than an hour.
That’s if you’re lucky, which the chances are you
won't be at this time of year. The peak of the Central American
hurricane season is nearing. Just two or three days of brisk
rain have turned the narrow paths to puddles of deep and sticky
mud. And as the route winds by the riverside of Rio Samala,
there is always the danger that its waters will sweep across
your path.
In the humid mid-morning heat, drivers struggle to find alternative
routes.
They negotiate their way through the fenced cattle fields, stopping
to open and close barbed wire cattle gates every hundred meters
or so. All too often, they find the ground too soft and either
turn back or get stuck.
"A few more rainy days and the road will be cut off completely,"
says Doctor Oscar Garcia from the Guatemalan Red Cross as he
prepares to begin the mobile clinic consultations in the village.
It is easy to predict more rainy days. Last year's hurricane
season was one of the most active on record, with 26 tropical
storms and 14 hurricanes. Even if this year proves less destructive,
La Nueva Candelaria is likely to face problems.
What makes it particularly worrying is that the community is
still suffering the effects of Hurricane Stan, the most violent
of last year's weather-related natural disasters in region.
Guatemala took the heaviest battering, with almost 1500 deaths
and an estimated 1.5 million people affected by the torrential
rains, flooding and landslides.
In La Nueva Candelaria, people lost much of their maize and
bean crops and many saw their homes destroyed. Most are smallholders
with very limited means of subsistence. Their only option is
to settle and cultivate close to the riverbanks, where the land
is cheapest but also most vulnerable to flooding. The village
was practically isolated for weeks, with no health services
or food reserves.
This is why Garcia feels under pressure. Accompanied by Guatemalan
Red Cross health staff and volunteers, he quickly starts organizing
the mobile clinic in the local primary school. Two classrooms
are transformed into consultation rooms while the third room
is turned into a dispensary. Drugs and other medical aids donated
by the International Federation are piled neatly, ready for
the patients.
As the nearest health post is far away, the queues start forming
rapidly. At the last stage of her pregnancy, Silvia Aguilar
has brought her three daughters with her. She says the children
feel weak and drowsy. One by one, they are examined by Garcia.
Crista, aged 8, and Roxana, aged 6, have got parasites and anemia.
Belta, who is less than two years old, has respiratory infection.
"These are very typical problems here,” explains
Garcia. “People turn to the river for their drinking water.
It is dirty, especially from now on as the flooding starts again."
He administers vitamin pills, a cure for parasites and antibiotics
for the girls.
There are no qualified midwives either. "Two traditional
midwives live in the village but one is getting very old and
doesn't practice any more and the other was kicked by a horse
and is laid up at home,” he says. “If the floods
take over, there won't be much help available in urgent cases.”
He takes Silvia’s blood pressure and monitors the heartbeat
before reassuring her that all seems to be well with her pregnancy.
Relieved, she smiles and collects the prescription forms for
her children.
The Guatemalan Red Cross mobile clinic visits La Nueva Candelaria
once a month. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Stan,
the visits were suspended in favour of essential emergency assistance.
They are at risk again if a new disaster strikes.
"It is important to provide medical treatment and medicines,”
explains Garcia. “But even more important is to offer
the people here tools to prepare by themselves for new catastrophes."
Global climate change is expected to increase the number and
violence of weather-related natural disasters across the world.
The effects will be felt here as well. The role of disaster
preparedness in national Red Cross programmes is therefore increasing
in Guatemala and elsewhere.
In La Nueva Candelaria, Red Cross staff have helped the villagers
form groups to plan and take care of the first aid, emergency
food reserves and evacuation of their community.
"It's a good thing that we'll be better prepared than last
year,” says Isabel Tux Meija, who runs a small street
kiosk selling soft drinks and snacks. “The river is rising
higher every day." She has lived in the village for more
than 35 years and says the weather has changed noticeably in
that time.
"It is hotter, it rains more often and the floods are worse,”
she explains as she shows how the water level last year reached
as high as the counter of her booth. “But how can I move
elsewhere? I am a single mother. Who would offer me a better
plot for my shop?"
|
 |
 |
|
|
What
makes it particularly worrying is that the community is
still suffering the effects of Hurricane Stan, the most
violent of last year's weather-related natural disasters
in region. Guatemala took the heaviest battering, with
almost 1500 deaths and an estimated 1.5 million people
affected by the torrential rains, flooding and landslides.
(p14745)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Accompanied
by Guatemalan Red Cross health staff and volunteers, he
quickly starts organizing the mobile clinic in the local
primary school. Two classrooms are transformed into consultation
rooms while the third room is turned into a dispensary.
(p14746)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Drugs
and other medical aids donated by the International Federation
are piled neatly, ready for the patients. (p14747)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News
