The U.S. announces that it will give $50,000 as the first part of a donation to help victims of Colombia’s devastating rainy season, reports RCN.
President Juan Manuel Santos and his wife, Maria Clemencia Rodriguez, are calling on businesses and international donors to give generously to the Colombians in need.
The Colombian government says it will cost nearly $300 million to meet the needs of the thousands of people affected by this year’s devastating rainy season.
The executive office calculated that families had lost an average of COP1 million ($536) and would require COP85,000 ($45) a week for food over the next four months.
So far the government has allocated $280 million across 17 organizations to help farmers, repair housing and build aqueducts across the country.
Colombia’s humanitarian organization will meet with the government at the Casa de Nariño next Tuesday to push forward plans to raise money.
As of late October, 97 people had died as a result of the rainy season, while a further one million had been affected.
Colombian meteorology institute Ideam predicts that the La Niña weather phenomenon will be active at least until the first trimester of 2011, bringing more rain over the next months.
