Catastrophic flooding hit Peru earlier this year, and NOVICA artisan Alfredo Inga was caught in the thick of the storm. His own home sustained major damage, and his community church was badly damaged.
![Horrendous flooding in Peru Alfredo Inga and Peru's Flood Victims](https://www.novica.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Pic-71.jpg)
We’ve been talking with Alfredo for months now, trying to get him to tell us how we can help him out. We thought we could to help rebuild his house or replace some of his water logged furniture. However, Alfredo would hear none of that. He only wants help for his church family.
![](https://www.novica.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Catacaos-dron-photo.jpg)
Alfredo is most concerned about the elderly members, including 87 year old Ricardo Yarleque, along with Yolanda, Teodora and Alfonso.
![Alfredo Inga and Peru's flood victims](https://www.novica.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Ms-Yolanda_21.jpg)
Alfredo’s church is not only a place of worship, but after the floods it is doubling as a hospital and an assisted care facility. Critical medical supplies were washed away with the waters leaving the most vulnerable people, like Ricardo, in even more of a bad predicament.
![Alfredo Inga and Perus flood victims](https://www.novica.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mr-Ricardo.jpg)
Ricardo has colon cancer and is fully reliant upon him and his church to survive. He is unable to stay at the hospital to get treatment for two reasons: 1. The hospital sustained major damage and only has room for a limited amount of patients, and 2. Ricardo does not have Peru’s equivalent of social security due to his disadvantaged status. In the countryside, many people are born without official record and therefore are not able to get help from the government for medical treatments. Even if hospital was fully functional, Ricardo couldn’t stay there for long. Alfredo’s church is stepping up to help him, but Ricardo still has a massive bill and a painful medical situation. He now has to stay at home or the church, and pay for his care entirely himself.
Yolanda, Teodora and Alfonso are all in their 80’s and have similar situations to Ricardo. All of them rely upon Alfredo’s church to fulfill their needs. Despite the church’s help, Yolanda really needs a walker and Teodora and Alfonso are in need of a wheelchair. Right now, they’re having to lean on others just to simply walk down the hall to their kitchen. Without the church, they would be in very bad shape. We intend to fulfill Alfredo’s wishes, and help his community out.
Alfredo created a “wish list” of critical items his church needs, ASAP.
40 Mattresses at $37 USD each = $1,480
5 Cases of Ensure milk at $32 USD each = $160
4 Cases of Pediasure milk at $26 each = $104
3 Wheelchairs at $122 each = $366
3 Walkers at $67 each = $201
3 Canes at $37 each = $111
Total = $2,422
With your help, we’d love to provide for all these items. Would you consider buying Alfredo’s church family a wheelchair, a mattress or a case of Ensure? He’d really be thankful – and so would we. We’ve set up a GoFundMe page for Alfredo. You can find it here.
For more information on Alfredo, please check out his artisan profile page here. NOVICA will be donating an additional 10% of his sales towards the relief efforts.
We’ll continue to provide updates as they come in, and please let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you!