Social Responsibility - Stan Hurricane

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	Besides donating a large sum to our trusted organization PAVA in order to help with the incurred damage in La Giralda, we also received a nice donation from one of our clients, and we sprang into action. We purchased what our producers told us they needed most -- the basic grains of corn (maiz) and beans (frijoles) and we spent an afternoon & evening packing the grains into a total of 850 twenty-five-pound bags to be distributed.
	The De La Selva staff members volunteered their evening to help pack the grains, bag by bag. As the afternoon wore on, family, friends, and neighbors also joined in to help the process go more quickly.
	We arriving to a Southern pueblo, San Lucas Toliman, due to closed roads and washed-out bridges in the east and north of the lake -- which is our usual road to meet with our artisans. In San Lucas, we were able to see upclose the damage caused by Hurricane Stan -- the water had risen to cover most of the docks, forcing the small boats to move closer inland.
	We loaded 100 bags into a small boat with the help of some volunteers from San Lucas. The boat then set off for San Antonio Palopó, where many of our artisans work on crochet stress balls and footbags.
	One of our artisans worked directly with us to unload and store the bags of grains. Here you see his grandchildren helping us to bring the bags up the steep slope where we disembarked. Our artisan would later hand out the bags from his home to each of his fellow workers who were asked to provide a name, for our records at De La Selva.
	In Santiago Atitlán we handed the bags out directly -- from the back of one of our hired trucks to the hands of the people of Santiago, where Hurrican Stan did much of his worst damage. In Santiago, we gave out 250 bags.
	The people waited patiently in line. They were also asked for their name before supplying a bag of grains. Many had tears in their eyes as they thanked us for the small help.
	This small pueblo was hit the worst -- covered by 35 feet of mud and the loss of some 1400 lives. This town has now been declared a mass grave.
	This pueblo was devastated by the Hurricane and help came slowly due to lack of an alert system. The heavy rains brought on by Stan caused massive mudslides and flooding, covering houses up to their rooftops and washing away anything in its path.
	In preparation to leave Santiago, we received help from many of Santiago's residents in loading 500 bags of grains into a single boat.
	These bags were bound for San Pablo La Laguna and San Marcos La Laguna. One of our artisans in San Pablo told us that although they had received donations, they needed the basic grains -- maiz and frijol -- in order to survive. In San Marcos, the town was devastated in the same manner as Panabaj -- fortunately, the residents heard the mudslide as it came rumbling down the hill. Most residents survived.
	In San Pablo we had a difficult task-- first in unloading the 500 bags onto a wet dock, and then climbing up the steep hill to place the bags into small pickup trucks. The bags were then transported to the home of one of our artisans, who would later hand out the bags to other artisans.
	We received many letters such as this one from our artisans. Translation of Letter entitled: San Pablo La Laguna 22/10/05 Dear: Jostein I send you a cordial and affectionate greeting in name of the supreme creator who guides you and protects you in all you do daily y the same for your dear family. Our Statement I use this letter to send my gratitude to you, those that took exceptional force to send us this small help, to us – those who weave ‘pelotas’ (crochet balls). I encourage you to continue working with us because we need more of your help. God willing, more orders will arrive so that we can continue working with you personally to complete this work. I do not have more to say than thank you for your great help and for the work that you share with us. I hope that you find great success in your daily tasks and in the future. Thank you. Sincerely, Noemi Petzey Petzey ID No. G-7 2,453