IOM and COOPI, one of its local partners, this week began a
600-kilometre journey to the remote northern department of
Petén to deliver humanitarian assistance to 685 families
(3,165 persons) who were forced to flee their homes following heavy
rains that affected Central America recently.

"This distribution is a real challenge.  To reach these
families, who lost many of their meager belongings to the heavy
downpours, it means driving 520 kilometres to the capital of the
Department of Petén and from there another 100 kilometres to
reach the families," explains Sebastián Berkovich of IOM
Guatemala.

As part of this post disaster initiative, funded by the United
Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), IOM and its local
partners (COOPI, CRS, ESFRA and SHARE) are distributing kitchen,
hygiene and agricultural tool kits and winter essentials such as
clothing, sheets, pillows and blankets to 2,000 families in the
departments of Champerico, Retalhuleu, Santa Rosa, Izabal,
Guatemala, Escuintla, Jutiapa and Petén, who were affected
by the heavy rains that swept across Central America in
October.

In Central America, it is estimated that 123 persons were killed
and tens of thousands were forced to flee their homes. In
Guatemala, 51 persons lost their lives and 254,000 others were
directly impacted.

Several days of non-stop rains caused rivers to overflow and
landslides which destroyed hundreds of homes and washed away
millions of dollars in crops, mainly maize and beans which are the
main staples for the population.  Many schools and clinics
were also damaged, severely affecting many persons living in rural
areas.

For more information, please contact:

Sebastián Berkovich

IOM Guatemala

Tel: +502 2314.0086

E-mail: "mailto:sberkovich@iom.int">sberkovich@iom.int