Cold snap in South America: 100,000 euros for victims in Peru and Bolivia

Children in Bolivia © Weller(29.07.2010) Welthungerhilfe is providing 100,000 euros of emergency relief aid to help the victims of the current cold snap in South America. A large part of the funds is being provided by the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. In view of the unusually severe winter, the aid agency is also asking the German population for donations.

In Peru, assistance in form of warm coats and blankets is initially being given to 970 families in the Acomayo and Canas provinces. The families have been particularly affected by the cold weather. In Bolivia, 2,000 children up to the age of ten are also receiving blankets and coats.

"This extreme winter is again hitting the poorest and most vulnerable people the hardest", explains Jeannette Weller, Welthungerhilfe's Regional Director in Lima, "and that means desperate hardship for many poor farmers in high-altitude remote districts and that old people and children are in immediate danger."

That's also why this is precisely where the emergency relief aid is being started. Our long-term cooperation with local partners means that it should definitely be possible to provide rapid and targeted aid:  "We fear that the wave of cold weather could last right through into September, so it's all the more important for us to be able to help those affected now."