Tents and Temporary Shelters in Túpac Amaru

Posted: 16 October 2007

by Maribel Sanchez

Getting back to a normal life amid the rubble of collapsed houses.

A pickup truck takes us through Túpac Amaru, a district in the outskirts of Pisco, where the streets are partially blocked by rubble from buildings destroyed by the August earthquake. Houses are now piles of adobe bricks. Those that withstood the earthquake show severe cracks and are uninhabitable.

“So much effort. My savings of 10 years gone, señorita,” says Norma Quispe with resignation, showing us the cracks in her house.

The Túpac Amaru district formerly had a population of 11,000 people. After the earthquake the population increased to 18,000, because many families, fearing a tsunami, moved to the higher areas of Pisco.

Along the way we stopped to pick up eucalyptus logs that will be used to build structures for temporary shelters, which will be covered with large sheets of the special plastic used by Oxfam worldwide for emergencies of this kind. Both materials are strong and adequate for temporary housing in places where it is not possible to set up tents due to the lack of space. This is a different situation from the one found in rural areas such as Humay, where Oxfam has already addressed the housing needs with tents.

Accompanying us are young French volunteers from Firemen Without Borders, who are joining efforts with young Peruvians from Moquegua. Manuel, the driver of the pickup truck, also helps. More hands are setting up shelters, each time doing it more skillfully and faster, and promoting the participation of the local people in their own recovery. One team, setting up shelters, is joined by another that reinforces the temporary housing with plastic sheets. A third team evaluates the situation in other areas to determine which places and families Oxfam will continue to help. Financial support for the work is coming from private donors in the United States and Spain, the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), the Quebec government and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

There is not much space for vehicles in the clogged streets of Túpac Amaru, as exemplified by a car that just struck a post. Luckily nobody was harmed. Rubble from fallen houses is everywhere, but spontaneous playfulness also breaks out: The local people, grateful for the assistance, come out to trade jokes with the French volunteers, who spend long hours setting up tents and reinforcing temporary housing structures despite the bright sun and dust. Their hard work encourages the locals. One woman comments that these young volunteers are exemplary, and contribute to the psychological recovery of the neighbors.

Stakes here, hammers there, stones and nails: These are the tools of this team that, alongside the locals, endures the heat and dust. Here we have lots of sunshine all year round, people tell us—and we see their dusty skin, cracked by the cold at night and burned by the sun. Another person comments, “Luckily the Paracas winds have already passed.” We share a sigh of relief because these winds, which blow for about three days during the month of August, are very strong and would have made the work difficult.

Children run around us. Franciscan priests invite us to the 6:30 p.m. mass. And soup kitchens complete the scene. The kitchens have become common in places affected by the earthquake. The meal of the day: tuna and onion stew. The women pour tuna from several donated cans of unknown brands and mix it with a little salt and lemon, while the rice is cooked in another pot that soon will be distributed to the families organized by neighborhood groups.

While many people have built temporary shelters with reed mats, others are still sleeping outdoors or in plastic shacks without a roof.

“The price of the reed mats went up after the earthquake, and now they are no longer being sold,” an elderly woman named Gualberta Quevedo said. The walls of her house fell down, but miraculously not on the corner where she was having supper with her husband.

We have almost finished our work day when the sound of a brass band fills the air. We recall that today is the feast of Santa Rosa de Lima, a saint whose image eight men carry on a pedestal adorned with flowers. It’s a holiday, and in Lima thousands of people visit her church and sanctuary to make wishes. Here in Pisco, and particularly in Túpac Amaru, it is just one more post-earthquake day in which people must continue the struggle to recover and move forward.

The procession draws more and more people who have been thrown onto the street by the earthquake. In the midst of firecrackers and band music, they pray that the earth stops shaking, and ask for help to recover. The procession continues in the streets, surrounded by piles of mud, dirt, bricks, old mattresses, and other debris. The people of Pisco march on.

Maribel Sanchez is the communications officer for Oxfam International in Pisco, Peru.