Hola Chile!

Well, folks - I did it. I hopped a plane to Chile. I wanted to see my birthfamily, I wanted to see my friends, I wanted to volunteer and I wanted to get a collection of photos of both the beautiful and devastated parts of Chile. So, here I am.

Volunteering to help was a huge part of my decision to come here. It's hard to watch on the news and see that the villages need so much assistance. It's a helpless feeling. So before I left, I tried very hard to find a group to volunteer with. But that didn't happen. Luckily, a friend of the family I am staying with in Santiago, had a lot of connection to those kinds of groups. And we found a perfect match.

Yesterday morning, I met with the director of a local volunteer group here in Chile called Voluntary Horizons. It's basically a group of foreigners now living in Chile, who came together to collect funds and create this group to volunteer to help the tiny villages in the south of Chile that suffered the most destruction. And they welcomed me into their group. So today, I get on a bus to travel to Los Coipos, Chile. In Los Coipos, 90% of the buildings and homes there either collapsed from the earthquake and tsunami, or will have to be demolished because they are not safe standing. My role will be primarily to document the damage there through photography, and provide some level of emotional support to the people there, with the limited Spanish I know.

Voluntary Horizons Solidarity Group
VH Solidarity Group is a group of friends of different nationalities who are working together to help those affected by the earthquake that occurred in Chile on 27th February 2010. Our primary objective is to identify, raise awareness and support communities in areas that are currently not receiving much help. Through the coordination of professional and non professional volunteers and the capturing and channeling of funding, we aim to participate in and develop projects that will improve the living conditions of the local people in a sustainable manner.

To read more about Voluntary Horizons, click here, here, and here.

To donate money to Voluntary Horizons, please request my email information and I can accept the donation online to pass along to the group this weekend.

Thank you, friends, for all of your support! / Gracia, amigos, por todo su apoyo!