"We were at a meeting with 70 catechists from Portoviejo who had come for training to the Salesian house of Santa Maria de los Ranchos in Crucita. At dinner time another earthquake started. Everything began to shake. Screams and the sound of breaking glass filled the room. Everybody fled running in the dark" writes Ángel Giler who works in the house.
"The house of Crucita,” says Fr Paco Gómez, looking sadly at what was destroyed, is the place where school children and parishioners came often for spiritual retreats. More than 30 years of Salesian mission, and now it is all lost!"
The Salesian community of Esmeraldas is in one of the affected areas. In the parish there are hundreds of families who have suffered the consequences of the earthquake. They were left without shelter, food, clothes, even without family, because they have lost everything. "Senor Jesús has lost everything. He has six children to feed and a house to build." Fr Juan Flores, Director of the Community of Esmeraldas, said, "Thank God the confreres are alive, but the material damage is irreparable. Lessons in the school have been suspended."
The walls of the Mary Help of Christians Educational Units are marked by cracks and crevices, especially on the second floor. 3,120 students studying in the centre, from San Rafael Valley, which is located south of the city of Esmeraldas. The work also is home to a thousand children of the parish oratory of and the catechism classes.
The Salesians and the parish of Mary Help of Christians are working together in the search for donations. The Provincial Development Planning Office in Ecuador is the body responsible for receiving and channelling national and international aid: www.salesianos.org.ec/oplad
