Food For The Poor Sends Millions In Aid To El Salvador Earthquake Victims

Food for the Poor
Tuesday, 16 January 2001

Deerfield Beach, Fla. (Jan. 16, 2001) - The international Christian charity FOOD FOR THE POOR (FFP) is shipping more than $15 million* in aid to the victims of the powerful earthquake that devastated El Salvador on Saturday, Jan. 13. The shipment includes more than $7 million in medical supplies and equipment, as well as food, nutritional drinks, building material, and more.*

The earthquake struck El Salvador only 24 hours after a group of FFP donors and staff members returned from a pilgrimage to the impoverished Central American nation of 6.2 million. More than 700 Salvadorans are dead, more than 2,500 are injured, and hundreds are still missing, feared buried alive by landslides.*

Food For The Poor has appealed to its donors for additional help as the full scope of the quake's devastation is realized.

The earthquake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale, was felt as far away as central Mexico and Panama. Several people in Guatemala were also killed.

The earthquake is the deadliest natural catastrophe to strike El Salvador since a massive 1986 quake killed more than 1,500. The disaster is a cruel blow to a country still struggling to recover from 1998's devastating Hurricane Mitch and - before the storm - 12 years of civil war in which 75,000 people, many of them peasants, lost their lives.

Damage to many FFP projects was significant to severe. However, Food For The Poor is thankful that none of its staff members in the country were injured. Organization-wide, Food For The Poor is praying for the earthquake victims.

"The Salvadorans are such a beautiful people, so strong and courageous and loving," lamented Father Paul Farin, the FFP priest who led donors and staff on the pilgrimage. "They haven't yet recovered from the civil war or from Hurricane Mitch, and now this earthquake …. It just breaks my heart, and all of our hearts."

FFP president Robin Mahfood has a special request for donors. "I ask all who have helped these people so much to remember them now especially," he said. "They need our help and our prayers more than ever.

"We will do everything possible for the Salvadorans in their hour of need," he said.

To help Food For The Poor in its relief efforts, donations can be made online at the charity's secure website www.foodforthepoor.org or via telephone toll-free at 1-800-282-POOR (7667). All gifts are tax deductible.

For more information, or to contact Food for the Poor, see their website at: www.foodforthepoor.org