Living in hope

In 2015, Eva Luz experienced devastation, when heavy rain caused a huge mudslide to smash into her home town of Chosica.

When Eva Luz went to check on her father at his home, she found him crying in shock and feeling unwell. Later, at the hospital, doctors said he’d had a heart attack and was lucky to be alive.

Eva Luz saw that long after the event itself, the effects of the disaster continued. People no longer felt safe. The intense anxiety even led to people having strokes and heart attacks.

“Everyone was sharing the same sense of shock. There was so much uncertainty. People worried about losing everything they worked so hard to build over many years. They began to think, ‘when will the next rock fall on us?’.”

Eva Luz took action and showed people how to hope. While the landslide took away so much from the community, it also gave Eva Luz great purpose.
With training and support from Practical Action, she and other local people set up a civil defence committee. Together, they were determined that if a similar disaster came again, they would be ready to put on their orange brigade jackets and take action.

“We have learned to stand up. When the rain starts, we measure it using manual rain gauges. If the risk is high, we evacuate.”

By monitoring rain and river levels, they have more time to get out of harm’s way. By training volunteers and practising drills, there are more people to help with evacuations and provide first aid. Combined, these actions reduce the worry, stress and fear that people feel.

Eva Luz is president of a network of community leaders across three neighbouring districts. Coming together like this creates a powerful forum for developing local authority capacity and increasing their support.

“We need to support each other. This creates a strong emotional bond. When we help each other out… we are standing up and saying ‘Yes! There is a solution’…and that to us is resilience.”

Our work to prepare for floods is more important than ever. And we’re not doing it alone. We are part of the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance, taking action with Zurich Insurance Group and other organisations to make this vision a reality: that floods have no negative impact on people or businesses and their ability to thrive.

No one should have to live in fear and feel helpless. Together we can take action and create hope for the future. Please give today.