Photos: Courtesy of Piña Palmera
Oaxaca, Oaxaca. “He hit hard and with all his might,” says Verónica Méndez, one of the victims of Hurricane Agatha, who lost everything. For a week, the affected families and towns of the coast and southern highlands of Oaxaca add up to 17,000 victims, according to official figures. But the figures do not count or speak of the human need of those who were left with nothing.
Piña Palmera is a Children's Care and Rehabilitation Center that was devastated and requires solidarity from everyone to rebuild and function again as it has done for 30 years, when it opened its doors in Zipolite, Oaxaca.
More than 100 minors and adults are cared for in this place, mostly indigenous people from the coast and southern highlands of Oaxaca, who receive free treatment for any disability, reported Nayeli Souza, a Piña Palmera volunteer.
"With the rains that Agatha left behind, the rivers filled and overflowed, the water and mud reached almost a meter and a half in height and entered the rehabilitation center to take everything away," he stressed in a telephone interview with Disinformémonos .
Nothing was left of the furniture, equipment and rehabilitation devices, says the young volunteer, so "we have to start over, requesting solidarity from the entire community."
Piña Palmera survives receiving donations. It has been like this for three decades, and with this flood 80 percent of its facilities were affected, emphasized Nayeli Souza, who stressed that the sole purpose of this center is to continue helping the indigenous families of Oaxaca.
“80 percent of our facilities were damaged by the rains. They were sites dedicated to the care and attention of people with severe disabilities. The workshops, houses and rooms of the staff and volunteers were totally destroyed, as well as the hydraulic and electrical installations, and all telephone and internet communication services,” he said.
In addition, it reported that the absolute loss of equipment and furniture of all kinds was recorded, including those necessary to carry out therapies, mobilize people with severe disabilities and care for them in critical situations.
“Today, Piña Palmera needs all of us for its reconstruction,” says Nayeli, and although she makes an urgent call to the three levels of government, her trust is in civil society, which, she assures, has always supported them.
“We want to build a world where it is less difficult to love”
“We want to build a world where it is less difficult to love” is Piña Palmera's dream and she emphasizes it on her website, citing the critical thought of the Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire.
In Piña Palmera all its members are equal. There are founders and volunteers like Nayeli Souza, who emphasizes that she urgently needs to rebuild this space that helps hundreds of families from two regions of Oaxaca.
Since its foundation, more than 5,000 minors and adults with different disabilities have participated in its programs. Now 635 people participate in their centers, where the population they serve is divided into 20 percent infants, 35 percent young people, 35 percent adults and 10 percent elderly.
People with different ages and disabilities (physical, intellectual, auditory, visual and psychosocial) participate in the actions that Piña Palmera carries out, as well as difficulties in the area of language, learning and behavior together with their families, without taking into account the type of disability.
The central axis of the work that this organization does is based on respect for differences and the formation of an inclusive society.
Those who make up Piña Palmera pointed out that "despite the flooding and the overflow of the rivers, the tidal waves and the wind, there are no human losses to mourn, however help is needed such as electric generators, solar cell lamps, water pumps, flashlights, shovels, ropes, construction materials, cleaning supplies, shoes and clothing”.
The aid, reported Piña Palmera, is received through donations to the bank account 09400502588 (Scotiabank Inverlat, with password 044630094005025888) and supplemented with data to obtain information about it: telephone 958 58431 47 or email caipinapalmera@gmail. com.
While the help in kind is received in Nahuatlacas mz. 81, lot 17, col. Ajusco, Cafetlaes esq. Canaverales, cabbage. Farms Coapan and Marsella 60, cabbage. Juarez, in the capital of the country. In the city of Oaxaca, it is Sikanda-Puente a la Salud Comunitaria/Privada de Magnolias 109, col. Reform.
Zipolite is one of the tourist sites on the Oaxacan coast that Agatha devastated and where government aid is provided by the people, because government institutions have been only dribs and drabs.
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