Earthquake Moves Students to Help Peruvian Town

When four anthropology students went to Peru last summer, their plan was to study the past through archaeological digs. Little did they know that their objective would change and that they’d be working to ensure the future of a small Peruvian town.

Michael Malpass, associate professor and chair of anthropology, had just spent two weeks excavating in northern Peru with students Erica Bergman ’03, Marissa Doster ’03, Denitsa Savakova ’02, and Meaghan Sheehan ’03. But when the group moved south to Camaná, they experienced an event more profound than they could have imagined. On June 23, while they were walking back after their first day of working in the hills outside the town, they were startled by strong vibrations in the earth. Without buildings around them, they couldn’t judge the severity of the tremors. But when they arrived back in Camaná, they discovered the magnitude of the devastation wrought --- the town of 20,000 or so had been hit by both an earthquake (measuring 8.1 to 8.3 on the Richter scale) and a massive tsunami.

An estimated 200,000 people were displaced, injured, or killed across Peru, and Camaná was among the hardest-hit areas. "The extent of suffering that a place like this endures after a natural disaster is unbelievable," says Bergman. "They don’t have the resources that we do to rebuild and move on." Moving on won’t be easy, since the town’s economy is based on agriculture and tourism, which will be affected for years to come.

While Savakova and Doster shouldered what remained of the group’s academic work, Sheehan and Bergman worked with the people of Camaná to start the Camaná Earthquake Relief Fund. "It happened to us as well as the Peruvians," says Sheehan. "The difference is that we could just leave, while the Peruvians had to rebuild their lives. We couldn’t just walk away." Since their return the students have solicited donations by showing videos from their visit and making presentations on campus, at conferences, and for as many groups as they can pull together, and they’ve gotten help from the print, radio, and television media in spreading the word. So far they’ve raised more than $6,000, which they have sent to a nun who runs the Camaná school and has been distributing donations. The money has been used for food, temporary housing, clothing, school fees and equipment, and medical supplies. "I’m amazed at the generosity of people," says Sheehan. "So many have come together to help a world that’s so different from ours."

Both Bergman and Sheehan are spending this spring semester abroad, in Nicaragua and Bolivia, respectively, and hope to revisit Camaná to see the good their efforts have done --- and the lifelong friends they made there.

--- Jill Bendig ’03

Photos

Top: Field of rubble that used to be houses.

Middle: After the tsunami, residents of La Punta, the coastal section of Camaná, struggled to make sense of it all. Photo by Meaghan Sheehan '03

Bottom: Lining up at a soup kitchen in town in the days after the catastrophe. Photo by Erica Bergman '03