Guatemala (1976)
Texto en
Español
Fred Cuny went to Guatemala in 1976 after an earthquake
which killed 23,000 people and left more than a million
homeless. He noted the link between poverty and disaster. The
poorest countries suffered the most from earthquakes and other
natural disasters and took the longest to recover.
Again, "junk aid" was rearing its head in Guatemala. Food
was pouring in from around the world, and volunteers were
making isolated attempts to rebuild villages without any input
from the natives. Cuny was fighting an uphill battle. He
realized that these types of aid would do little good, so he
had another decision to make. Would he operate within the
framework created by the volunteers? Or would he introduce his
own ideas? And if so, what kinds of ideas could make a real
difference?
To understand Fred Cuny, one must realize that he believed
the goal of disaster relief is to return people to their normal
way of life as soon as possible. And traditional methods of
relief often failed to do that. So Cuny came up with a unique
idea for Guatemala. He organized the Guatemalans and taught
them construction techniques. Specifically, the Guatemalans
needed to learn how to build earthquake-resistant housing. It
was impossible for widespread construction of houses that would
be totally impervious to earthquakes, but Cuny taught the
Guatemalans to build houses that would not collapse inward, a
phenomenon which caused many of the deaths in 1976.
To teach the Guatemalans, Cuny created "housing pictographs" which outlined, in an
easy-to-understand format, the types of houses that were safe
and those that should be avoided. These housing pictographs
were distributed throughout Guatemala. In this way, Cuny
satisfied his goal of not just helping people, but teaching
them to help themselves.
Unfortunately, Guatemala was one place where Cuny's plans
backfired. It was here that he discovered the connection
between disaster work and politics. Having failed to take into
account political considerations, his plans were destined to
run into trouble. Indeed, the people who he had trained in
construction were seen as community leaders, but because they
were seen as threats to the political structure, they were
killed. It was a difficult pill for Cuny to swallow, but it was
a lesson he would learn well and apply to his future
projects.
Pictures from Guatemala