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Chocos Village Project: contributions from Roche make a difference.
Basel, 27 August 2008
One year ago this month, the small village of Chocos, Peru was struck by a devastating earthquake measuring 7.9 degrees on the Richter scale. In the ensuing year the people of this small Andean village have lived through the damage and gained a sense of hope thanks to their own efforts and those of Roche and Roche employees. After immediately sending emergency and first aid materials to the region, Roche decided to make a lasting difference by helping to reconstruct the destroyed village. The company donation both from Roche Peru and Corporate has helped address the first critical needs to give the community a brighter future. This has focused initially on construction of a dam, training in farming and construction skills, special crop seedings, emergency shelter, housing reconstruction and installation of a playground. The company support will continue to address water, housing, farming, health and nutrition improvements.
In the past few months Roche employees beyond Peru have also extended a helping and supportive hand through the Roche Employee Action and Charity Trust (Re&Act) Chocos Campaign. To date CHF 33’000 from a dozen affiliate campaigns have been reported. To put this result in terms of what it can mean in Chocos, these funds could secure up to four 4x4 municipal vehicles, 100 special breed cows or other critical livestock, 2’000 square meters of road paving, 3’000 square meters of roof tiles, 30’000 kg of nails or more than enough wheelbarrows, tools and school supplies for a year.
How these additional funds will actually be used to augment the redevelopment for Chocos will be determined in collaboration with the village itself. The past year has shown clear progress while also demonstrating the need for flexibility as the challenges of weather, altitude, expertise, distance and competing work opportunities all influence what has priority and the most feasibility.
Roche employees in Peru who have extended themselves well beyond their roles at work and employees around the world who have donated are really making a difference. It is their spirit and generosity which prompted Gladys, a resident of Chocos to say; "What you are doing is something so big that we all are very thankful. All the people of Chocos are very grateful to all the people from Roche for helping". In return we must congratulate the people of Chocos for what they have done through openness, hard work and perseverance to use the resources and knowledge they are gaining.
A video (in Spanish) on the early stages of Roche involvement in Chocos is now available for viewing on the Re&Act website; see also a Word document containing the English captions of the spoken word. |
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