Surviving the Earthquake in Chile - A Personal Account and a Plea for Your Help

by BoliviaBella.com
(Santa Cruz, Bolivia)

Since the day the earthquake occurred in Chile, through BoliviaBella we've been doing everything we can online and off to help people locate their loved ones in Chile, or help people in Chile get messages to their friends and families in Bolivia and elsewhere overseas by tweeting, blogging, entering forums, making phone calls, doing lengthy online searching, and putting up information each day.

Simply put, those of us who have websites have been working very hard to ensure our sites are put to good use in an effort to help.

My friend Lorete lives in Villarrica, Chile. It's a city located in the state of Temuco, which thankfully sustained less damage than other areas. She owns and designs a website called Chile-Attractions.com

Lorete is a Canadian-Chilean and, in looking for ways to help out her country, decided to put up several pages on her site to share about what has been happening in Chile since the earthquake occurred on 27 February. It's easy to forget that long after this earthquake stops making news headlines (months or even years from now) there will still be people trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and start anew.

Lorete and I are linking our sites together in an attempt to broaden our efforts. If you know anything about the history between Chile and Bolivia, you know that there is often great rivalry between our two nations. However it's striking to see people and governments drop all disputes immediately when something like this happens. Bolivia (and Peru, also involved in disputes with Chile) were among the first nations to offer aid.

Although it's hard to imagine that anything good could result from so MUCH devastation, there is great evidence both in Chile and elsewhere to prove otherwise. People and governments all over the world are demonstrating that their best quality is their ability to set aside their differences. So please take a moment to read Lorete's pages on the Chile earthquake and mine as well, and share them.

The first page www.chile-attractions.com/chilean-earthquake.html tells about the quake itself, the initial hysteria and fear, the scarcity of food, panic, looting and people's other immediate reactions. She calls it "the bad news" page.

The second page www.chile-attractions.com/chile-earthquake.html explains where Chile is at now, what people are doing to organize and survive, and how Chileans are putting aside all other differences to come together and help each other. She calls it "the good news" page.

The third page www.chile-attractions.com/earthquake-in-chile.html lets you know what you can do to help and she'll be adding to this page

Please share her pages on any social network you belong to, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and forums and help us get the message out there that the people in Chile are desperate for help and will be for months to come. It will take Chile years to recover from the damage of an earthquake SO strong it shifted the Earth's axis! Long after the earthquake in Chile ceases to be news-worthy people will be still be rebuilding their lives.

Please also read and share the following pages:

www.boliviabella.com/chile.html is the Chile forum we've put up on BoliviaBella.com for people to share information on what is occurring in Chile. Anyone can also post information, last known locations and photographs of people who are still missing in Chile. We are taking the information and disseminating it through as many means as we have available to us.

www.gosouthexpat.com/chile-expat-forum.html is the Chile forum on my other website for expatriates living in Chile. We're making it available too, for the same purpose.

In addition, I've put up a live stream of TVChile on the GoSouthExpat.com home page here. You can watch TVChile's earthquake news coverage 24 hours a day.

Underneath it, you'll see a live forum. Chileans are coming together in such forums to help each other find information and news on people they are still searching for, and are posting news of what is happening and what is needed in certain regions. They often ask "the phones are working here, can I help anyone make any calls?"

Share these pages on your social networks, email them, run them through your sites and blogs, and help us help Chile!

SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH CHILE!

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