18 January 2001

San Salvador, El Salvador: United Nations Volunteers working in El Salvador were among the first relief officials to offer assistance to victims of Saturday's devastating earthquake. More UN Volunteers are travelling from around the region to join the international humanitarian effort.

"UN Volunteers in El Salvador responded instantaneously to help people in tremendous need, just as they did two years ago when Hurricane Mitch ripped through Central America," said Douglas Evangelista, chief of UNV's Latin American and Caribbean Section. "UNV is building upon the lessons learned from past crises to move even more quickly and effectively."

Three international and four national UN Volunteers assigned to the World Food Programme (WFP) in the Central American country are assessing needs of people hardest hit by the quake, which registered between 7.6 and 7.9 on the Richter scale. They are compiling an emergency database, monitoring and carrying out food distribution and organizing meetings with donors and institutions to coordinate relief efforts. One UNV attached to a woman's non-governmental organization has joined the WFP team to help distribute food.

They also receive and support international relief missions arriving from Nicaragua and Guatemala. Three additional international UN Volunteers are expected to arrive shortly to assist WFP's efforts.

A rapid response team of UNV/White Helmets Volunteers from Argentina, comprised of two disaster specialists and one doctor, was expected to arrive in the country today to support the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination agency (UNDAC). They are bringing medicines and other relief supplies for the victims. They will also work with local groups to identify opportunities for the use of volunteers in the post-emergency phase.

Three UN Volunteers working in El Salvador as part of a regional project of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on supporting implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) have set aside their normal activities to concentrate on relief efforts.

"They are following closely the situation of children with UNICEF after the earthquake," says UNV Programme Officer Cristina Herrero Perez from the capital San Salvador. "One of them is organizing and coordinating brigades of volunteers that provide special psychological attention to children."

Four other UN Volunteers working to support national plans to mark the International Year of Volunteers are organizing teams of local volunteers to support the activities of UNICEF, UNDAC, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Disaster Management Team (UNDMT). They are collecting information and updating a map illustrating the support provided by different institutions.

Making use of a recently approved UNV project for the rapid deployment of volunteers in emergencies, UNV is identifying volunteers to work with COMURES, the Committee of Municipalities of El Salvador, to strengthen their capacity to provide help to the victims and to design reconstruction projects.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 660 people were killed in the wake of the earthquake, including some 260 in the landslide zone of Santa Tecla. Some 40,000 people have been affected by the disaster.