Mrs. Wendy de Berger, First Lady of Guatemala meets with Mr. Stephen Miller, President, HELPS International to request the support of this Organization in the emergency relief process and long-term reconstruction efforts taking place in the devasted regions of Guatemala.  Hurricane Stan hit the country two weeks ago leaving thousands of people homeless and millions of dollars lost in infrastructure. The number of dead and missing has now surpassed 1,500 with nearly 110,000 people living in temporary shelters.  Entire villages in some of Guatemala's poorest, most remote and populous regions were flooded or buried under mudslides.

With much world media attention focused on the earthquake in Pakistan and post-hurricane recovery in the United States, donations are desperately needed to fund emergency efforts in Guatemala.  There is a significant deficit in temporary shelters, housing, food, water and medicine.

One of the main concerns of the First Lady is clean, pure water.  She has ordered 4,000 water filters from HELPS International to be distributed throughtout the individual temporary shelter units that are being implemented for families in the areas that need them most.  For example, San Marcos is one for the departments that were very hard hit.  Some experts estimate that this devastation could be considered worse than Hurricane Mitch, which hit Central America in 1998.