On August 24, a powerful earthquake hit central Italy. Entire cities were seriously damaged, many people died.
The first shock with a magnitude 6.0 occured at 3.36 am, with the epicenter two kilometers from Accumoli away, in the province of Rieti. The earth shook with such violence that the earthquake was also felt very clearly in Rome and other major cities (Florence, Naples, Bologna, and Rimini).
Adra Italy: Contact with governmental institutions
Since the first day, ADRA Italy was able to have a referent in the zone affected by the earthquake. Pastor Daniele Benini has always been in contact with the institutional organizations that manage the natural disaster (Civil Protection, Red Cross, Army, Firemen etc.) and he participated in some meetings with the Municipality and local associations to understand the main needs.
Adra Italy informed institutional organizations that in Rieti (the city where the Civil Protection has its headquarters) there is an Adventist Church and a local ADRA office with big spaces for hosting people, a professional kitchen, a refectory, bathrooms and toilets.
Activities of assistance and emergency response
Since Sunday, August 28, until Sunday, September 12, Adra Italy hosted 12 displaced people, who lost their homes; these three families were sleeping while the earthquake arrived, and they were very lucky to save themselves, because after a few minutes they had escaped from their home, the internal walls collapsed.
Adra assisted these persons with beds, three daily meals, clothes, medicines and counselling.
Adra has also organized groups of volunteers for the activities of the refectory: works inside the kitchen, bathrooms and toilets, store management, counselling and transporting of people in hospitals or other places.
The sense of solidarity has been very high, and the humanitarian organization was forced to stop appeals for food and clothes; the deposits of the Civil Protection were totally full, and in the last weeks Adra received several trucks full of food, clothes, medicines, materials like rain boots, k-ways that will be delivered in the next weeks, according to the needs.
Adra will deliver these materials according to the needs and requests that came from little villages around Amatrice, especially the villages on the mountain and far from the main streets.
Activities of post emergency
ADRA Italy has completed its activities of assistance: the three families are now living in a village close to Rieti (Poggio Bustone), thanks to governmental help.
“We think that our support can now be useful for the phase of post emergency; we are listening to the local people and reporting their needs, above all during this phase of reconstruction, where there are often gaps or problems”, so Pastor Benini.
Adra is monitoring the situation, working directly with people or organizations with specific needs and keeping high attention on those situations that could fall in the shadows.
“Now that the problem of accommodation of displaced people is almost resolved, we think that the attention of local institutions will be on the restarting of the productive activities, and on all people such as artisans and workers that lost their jobs”, commented Daniele Benini.
According to this vision, Adra decided to set up a fund to buy the basic instruments for people who lost their work instruments during the night of the earthquake; in the last days the Adra Staff bought basic instruments to help n. 4 woodcutters to restart their activities (chainsaws, clothes and complementary instruments);
“This will be useful not just for them, but for other workers who help them and for the companies that buy their wood and who, in this very moment, cannot keep on working”, so the Adra Staff.
Moreover, the Adra Staff is talking with institutional offices and participating in meetings with local associations to find a project to which it can contribute; this project must be useful for the community (or a specific category of people) and create a benefit in the long run.
