Day Seventeen

Every year Cusco is hit by the rainy season in around January and February. This year the small town of Yucay and its neighbouring villages were hit with more rain than usual. The rain that had been gathering in the mountains streamed down into the valley, and the ever-rising river burst its banks. This led to tragedy for the mud huts belonging to the people of Yucay.

This is another natural disaster that I do not remember hitting the news.

Many of the people living here were left with nothing: no homes, no food, no crops, no livestock and sometimes even fewer family members than before the floods struck.

The Williamsons have travelled to Yucay every week, providing food for the many families who have been living cramped together in tents. The people have now left their tents and are adapting to living in what used to be good homes for them.

To help them along their way, today we gave out maize seeds to almost 400 families. This will help them to become self-sustainable again, instead of relying on food from organisations like BMS, as they grow, harvest and sell the maize.

It was tough work in the heat of the sun, and meant getting up early again, but these people have been forced to go through so much worse.