"We didn’t have a tent,” says Ana Maria Flores, a mother of two children living in the coastal village of Lota. “We have a mattress but we were wet from the frost in the mornings.”

The family wasn’t sleeping under the stars for fun, but because their house suffered serious structural damages after an enormous earthquake rocked southern Chile February 27.

“Our house is bad,” explains Ana Maria, “we can’t live in it.” Ana Maria’s home was built on stilts on uneven ground which moved out from under it, leaving the whole structure leaning down the hill. “It’s dangerous to be inside. We could be flattened because the aftershocks are so strong,” she says.

“As a mother, I was desperate. I was praying that nothing would happen to my children because as a mother you worry about your children.”

No place to live

Ana Maria is not alone. Nearly 5,000 houses were destroyed or suffered structural damages which made them unusable. About 1,000 of these houses belong to sponsored children, according to Lina Rodriguez, World Vision’s development manager for the area.  With winter just a couple months away, people were beginning to worry. “The rainy season is about to start, that is our biggest concern. Where these families are going to live,” says Lina.

On March 10, World Vision distributed the first 300 tents and Ana Maria, was one of the first recipients. “I never expected that it would be today. Thank God it is already here and set up. I am really excited. I thought it would be a small tent but it looks like it is immense. Our whole family will fit,” she says with a smile.

For Ana Maria this is a first step in her family’s recovery. “The most important thing is that we have somewhere to sleep now,” she says. “Thank you to everyone who helped us to be able to have this."