About Us
It has now been a year and three months since the earthquake. Although much progress has been made throughout the city there is still a lot of work to be done. The previous organization helped many families but there are still many more that have not received any aid. Our goal is to continue providing disaster relief to those families that still need help rebuilding their homes. The focus of M.A.D. volunteers to provide long-term disaster relief by encouraging families to work together on rebuilding their houses. Our objective is to reach out to small tight nit communities and organize a system of community involvement and discuss ways that families can work together in the reconstruction of their homes. We want to empower individuals to volunteer their time to help their neighbors and in return receive help on their own construction projects. We are trying to step away from only international volunteers participating on the work site.
As a small organization without funding (donations coming only from volunteers) we are able to offer our tools and labor free of charge but need the families to provide the building materials. In this way we are able to help low-income families rebuild by cutting costs for labor and tools. By involving the families in our projects we are able to maximize our ability to help as many people as possible by limiting the amount of volunteers on each site. By working with members of the family we hope to encourage them to gain the skills and confidence necessary to continue construction in their homes without outside influences. Through building connections throughout the community we have a network of community members that are willing to offer their skills to help us on future projects. In this way we create a base foundation for the family to be able to build from. We hope that we can instill the idea of families helping each other and sharing their skills and tools in the continuation of their homes.
As we said before we are a small group of individuals consisting of volunteers who have already been to Pisco before and have returned to continue working in this town. M.A.D. volunteers is in the very beginning stages of becoming a Non-Profit organization. We’ve been working on this for about two months and have already had a few short term volunteers come through. This is just a little info on our core group of people as of right now.
Hey! My name is Katie and I have been in Pisco, Peru since the beginning of June 2008. Originally I came to South America to travel and within the first week heard about Pisco and decided to come volunteer. My plan was to stay about 3-4 days but the atmosphere and the people kept me here. Five months later, the majority of the disaster relief NGO’s (Non-Profit Organizations) have left and there is too much work that still needs to be done for me to leave. My hope is, that by staying here long after most groups, we can create a more community based, long term disaster relief organization. One that has spent enough time in an area to find leadership within the community so that eventually when all non-residential volunteers leave there will be a more substantial infrastructure within Pisco working together to not only rebuild but to promote and create a better future for the people of Pisco.
My name is Pisco Billy. I came here January of 2008 to volunteer at an orphanage. However they took one look at me and showed me the door. I then heard of volunteer opportunities in Pisco where I was accepted with open arms. Shortly after I lost the end of my finger, but stayed on to do strong work for the community of which I love. I feel no one cared enough about the people of Pisco, but upon meeting them you too will find them a truly remarkable, resourceful, resilient bunch.