IOM El Salvador, with funding from the European Commission for
Humanitarian and Civil Protection (ECHO), has started the
distribution of return kits to families affected by the floods last
November.

The returns kits are part of an ongoing project that is
providing support to persons living in collective centres and to
families affected by mudslides in El Salvador.

The kits include gas stoves, wooden beds, mattresses, a plastic
dining set, dinner set and cookware.

Jorge Sagastume, IOM Project Coordinator, says, "These families
lost all their belongings, so they need these items to start their
lives again."

"We lost everything. My three children (10, 6 and 2 years of
age) and I are sleeping on a mattress on the floor.  To cook,
we had to go to a neighbour’s house," says Elsy de Lourdes
Mena, one of the first beneficiaries who received an IOM return
kit.

With tears in her eyes, Mrs. Mena says thank you and smiles, "My
children are in school.  They have no idea about the surprise
that awaits them!  They will no longer have to sleep on the
floor," she adds.

"Do you know what it’s like to cook on a mud stove? 
It is exhausting!," exclaims Ana María Salas, who had to
prepare food for her six children in an improvised stove built with
bricks, a zinc sheet, and covered with clay. 

Her back pain and itchy, watery eyes from the mud stove will end
the moment she starts using her new gas stove.

IOM’s Daisy Rivas explains that the selection process to
determine which families would get the kits has been intense. 
"The persons that will benefit from this project must meet several
requirements:  First, they had to have been personally
affected by the November 7 floods, and they must be eligible to be
relocated to risk-free areas," explains Rivas.

Rivas adds that the first reports of families affected by the
floods were provided by local governments, so IOM had to verify
that all of the data was correct and that the selected families
were not receiving assistance from other programmes.

The IOM assistance project began last November and is expected
to finish in May. Approximately 300 families will receive return
kits.  The project will also repair some collective centres
that sheltered the affected population after the floods.

On 7 November 2009, a low pressure system caused floods and
mudslides in the majority of the Salvadoran territory, leaving a
toll of 180 deaths and hundreds of homeless families.

Presently, there are 30 collective centres which are still open
to provide shelter to more than 1,700 persons.

For more information please contact:

IOM El Salvador

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