Racing down from the mountains in a rented truck, Cecilia Wunderlich on Tuesday hauled 58 boxes of medicine, blankets, clothing, shoes, toothbrushes and more donated by workers in western Colorado for earthquake victims in Peru.
Uprooted by the Aug. 15 quake that killed more than 500, thousands are now settling into camps where aid workers and survivors say they can use any help they can get.
Wunderlich, a preschool director in Silt, grew up in Peru and lived through the Yungay quake three decades ago, which killed 20,000. “I survived one earthquake in 1970. I know what it’s like,” she said. “I know people need help right now.”
Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp., which runs a gold mine in Peru, stepped in to transport the aid. When Newmont officials learned Wunderlich was coming Tuesday, they held the latest of three shipments, collected at Peru’s consulate in Denver, for her.
The next loads will move by ship, said Newmont spokesman Omar Jabara. Officials also are working with Project Cure, the Denver-based medical-relief nonprofit, to send more medicine next month.
Big aid-agency officials disagree about priorities.
Too much clothing “clogs up the runways when medicines are really needed,” American Red Cross spokeswoman Carol Miller said.
Yet in a Peruvian relief camp at Pisco, Lucio Anicama, a 43-year-old father of two whose house was destroyed, said “most people only have one set of clothes, so we can still use anything that comes.” Most urgent: “What we need is a doctor and food. We started with 250 people here. Now there are more than 500,” he said, using a priest’s cellphone.
In Colorado, Wunderlich said she was awed by how many people drove to her school to donate supplies. “When they heard what happened, they were touched,” she said.
