Click here to read the reflection from the RSCJ Provincial team in Chile, March 7th, 2010.

With electricity cut during the days immediately following the earthquake it was difficult to communicate. Reaching RSCJ was also further hampered as many were just returning to their communities at the end of the long school holidays. The Provincial has now been able to reach most of the RSCJ in the different parts of the country.

Many properties were damaged and one is total uninhabitable.

The sisters suffered no major injuries.

Some sisters lost relatives and others know that family members are now homeless.

A teacher and an administrator in the school in Concepción were injured.

It is a time of great uncertainty and insecurity in the region affected by the earthquake.

Our schools have suffered structural damage and there is fear of looting while they stand empty.

Water and electricity is gradually being restored in some areas. In Concepción the collapse or severe structural damage to bridges over the Bio Bio River is making it difficult to reach the school.

Enormous energy as well as financial resources will be needed to clean and gather together what will be needed to open these institutions so that they can again become centers for reaching out to others in need.