Guides and Scouts of Chile Aid Quake Victims

We Have all heard of the earthquake that shook Chile last weekend. The Scouts and Guides Association of Chile are making significant contributions of time to aid the relief of their country.

Access to the world through the internet is more than an entertainment or source of information; it is an imperative to act.

If our pledge, as Scouts, to render assistance to those in need is anything more than words we can follow the example of our Chilean brothers and sisters and send a few dollars to aid them. I'm fortunate enough not to worry about having enough to eat or having a place out of the weather nor with the immediate safety of my family. All this could change in a moment as it did for millions of Chileans last week.

If we all give even a small amount it will have an immense impact.

A direct donation can be made to the bank account listed below, through UNICEF or The American Red Cross

Here's a letter from the Chilean Scouts:

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, 201o ... 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...

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 Executive Director - Guides and Scouts Association of Chile

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)

News and Photos from the AGSCH website

(Translated by Google Translator) International Airport, volunteers from the Association of Guides and Scouts of Chile working for 12 hours to prepare at least 2 thousand basic food baskets ordered to be sent.

From 1 March, about 360 scouts packed supplies for earthquake-affected areas and thus help prevent that meet in the collection centers get messy and is faster and more convenient delivery.

The shifts lasting 12 hours and has even had to work at night to thereby expediting the ordering of supplies. Each box contains the basics for a family: powdered milk, bottled water, hygiene items and nonperishable food, among other things.

Thus, have been ordered so far about eight thousand basic food baskets for families in the regions of Maule and Bio Bio, where there is a group of 300 Scouts from the area who started work in support of the community .

In Santiago, at least 300 scouts have moved during the week to remove debris in the communities most affected

After the earthquake of 8.8 degrees which struck the capital, several communities were affected by collapsing houses or old buildings that withstood the quake.

At least 138 volunteers went to the municipality of Cerro Navia and 80 in the Conchalí. Several buildings collapsed and volunteers of the Association of Guides and Scouts of Chile made the cleaning of debris during the week.

"In Conchalí too much destruction there, people there need help as much as in the south," said Matias Bravo, one of the scout volunteers answered the call.

Another 150 volunteers worked to remove debris from the district of Santiago.