Relief news update from Brazil - 19 Aug 2010  
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Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association relief news update from Brazil.
Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced in June when deadly floods swept the nation’s northeastern states of Pernambuco and neighboring Alagoas, causing such widespread calamity that even the Brazilian government’s quick responses were not able to reach all the afflicted.

With her heartfelt sympathies and prayers, Supreme Master Ching Hai donated US$15,000 in aid, asking that our nearby Association members please go to help.

This amount could acquire US$68,000 in emergency supplies, if obtained in the United States, based on Brazil’s cost of living.

Covering their own travel and related expenses of approximately US$890, our Association’s relief team went to the most desperate areas.

After rendering assistance in Pernambuco state, they traveled to Alagoas. First visiting the municipality of Branquinha, which had been 90% inundates and destroyed by the flooding, they consulted with Councilman Arthur da Purificação Freitas Lopes, who informed that there were at least 30 fatalities and 4,000 rendered homeless.

The displaced were taking refuge in the one remaining school or in homes of relatives and friends.
Our Association members distributed water, vegan food, mattresses, sheets, and housing and personal hygiene items to the grateful victims, and offered Master’s love and comfort to a man whose daughter had sadly been swept away in the flood waters.

The relief team then went to União dos Palmares and surrounding areas, where they found entire streets destroyed and people searching through the rocks and trash for salvageable items. Eight people had perished, with 30 missing.

Councilman José Benedito dos Santos reported 2,800 houses were destroyed and 14,000 people homeless, telling our Association members that this was the largest flood that he had ever seen.

He conveyed his deep gratefulness to our Association members for coming from so far away to bring Supreme Master Ching Hai’s aid.

The relief recipients also expressed their deep thankfulness for Supreme Master Ching Hai and our Association members’ support as well as aid, which were distributed in SOS bags with information about the vegan solution to the devastating tolls of global warming.

Relief recipient (M): Supreme Master [Ching Hai], who brought everything here to us, we appreciate it, from the heart, we appreciate it. Thank you, from the heart. Thank you very much.

VOICE: We thank the Brazilian and local government personnel for their swift humanitarian efforts. Our appreciation also goes to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her attentive care and our Association’s relief team for their sincere endeavors.

May Heaven bless the afflicted with a swift recuperation to the steadiness of everyday life as our kinder actions help restore planetary balance.