Acreans living in RS report a scene of destruction and reinforce teams of volunteers: ‘Families lost everything’ | Acre

Doctor trained in Acre serves homeless people in accommodation set up in a gym

The humanitarian chain that was formed to help the residents of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) includes people from Acre who live in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. O g1 spoke with tour guide Alexandre Chalub and business consultant Simone Chalub, who are brothers and live in the cities of Canela and Três Coroas, respectively, which are in Serra Gaúcha.

Another who shared the story was volunteer doctor Marcos José Ferreira, graduated from the Federal University of Acre (Ufac) and who moved to the city of Cerro Grande do Sul, one of those affected by the rains, after receiving a job offer. What the professional didn’t expect was to find a state devastated by rain.

“I arrived about ten days ago and, unfortunately, there was this coincidence with all this calamity that the state is facing. Cerro Grande do Sul is about 100 kilometers from Porto Alegre and, fortunately, it was not hit and has been mobilizing as a support point for people who are displaced or homeless. There are around 150 people in accommodation in the city”, he reported.

The professional even provides medical care to those sheltered in the accommodation. He highlights that there is concern about infections and feverish syndromes in the coming weeks. “Leptospirosis itself, as people had contact with contaminated water. And, of course, the issue of mental health, which was affected due to the great trauma that the population faced. A platform was made available so that people can sign up and act as volunteers”, he added.

Alexandre Chalub has lived in the city of Canela (RS) for six years with his wife and nine-year-old son. He has another son, 19 years old, who lives in Porto Alegre and is unable to leave the capital. The tour guide mobilizes to help the residents of the neighboring city Três Coroas, one of the hardest hit.

“Três Coroas is in this calamity situation, the water rose almost two meters here, covered around 80% of the city and devastated the city of Igrejinha as well, which is 10 kilometers away”, lamented Alexandre.

Acrean who lives in RS mobilized fundraising to buy cleaning products

He explained that in Canelas the situation is calm, but that last week the population was without electricity for two days. Currently, there are problems with the water supply and the internet signal, which fluctuates a lot.

“I have a tourism agency in Canela and I used social media to raise funds to buy cleaning products, which is the main one used. The difficulty is with cleaning, there has been a lot of food coming, a lot of snacks and now we need help with cleaning products. cleaning and personal hygiene. We need animal feed, lactose-free milk. I went to a house where a child was sick because he was drinking milk with lactose,” he added.

The cleaning kits are distributed to residents who live in areas where the water has already receded. However, Alexandre has found it difficult to buy basic products such as a squeegee, toothpaste and even a broom.

“I went to Florianópolis, to a wholesale store, and managed to buy a lot of things. The local market is practically empty. We put together personal hygiene kits and cleaning products and there was a lack of brooms. We are having difficulty finding toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc. We managed to buy a squeegee to deliver”, he said.

Simone Chalub helps friends and acquaintances in her spare time

Business consultant Simone Chalub lives in the Vila Schell neighborhood, one of those located right at the entrance to the city of Três Coroas. The area where she lives was not affected by river flooding, however, a friend was not as lucky and lost almost everything.

“The river passes through the middle of the city and, therefore, it is destroyed, a scene from a horror movie. Many industries lost everything, all our commerce was affected, the entire city center was compromised. Families lost everything, people died. Yesterday The bodies of two children, 10 and 6 years old, were found, after the water receded, and now they came to the surface”, he lamented.

Acreana helps a friend who lives in Três Coroas to clean her house after the waters recede

Over the weekend, Simone and other volunteers mobilized to help affected residents clean their homes after the waters receded,” he says.

And here it is like this, there is no specific person, we don’t just go to the house of people we know. We enter the house, grab a squeegee, a broom and start cleaning. We have one person, a little lady who is a friend’s mother, who lives alone, and her dog woke her up in the middle of the night, because she takes prescription medication, and she woke up because of the noise and the water was rising. If she had continued sleeping she would have died,” she recalled.

This Wednesday (8), Simone said that it rained again in the city and the power went out. “We are like this, one minute the water runs out, one minute the power goes out. I went back to work, but at the weekend I’ll go back to helping, I spent the whole weekend committed to helping my friend and another house we went to. There’s a gym municipal here where the population volunteered to sort the donations. When we are cleaning the houses, people from other cities drive by providing snacks, cleaning products, welcome, offering to come in and help.” , he highlighted.

Eldérico Silva and Gabrielle Mandu, from Rede Amazônica Acre, collaborated.