When I heard the news of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile on the morning of Saturday, February 27th, the first thing I did was log into Facebook. With telephone and power lines down, wireless internet quickly became the best mode of communication for many of my friends and former colleagues in Chile.

I’d been in Chile just a short time ago, not only for an internship, but also for a wedding between a good friend I’d grown up with in my hometown of Baltimore, MD and a Chilean girl who had come to be like second family while I was living in Chile. 47 Americans had come down for the ceremony held at a vineyard outside of Santiago. For some, it was their first time ever leaving the United States. We all shared a wonderful experience and were sad to leave behind the lovely Chilean landscape and our many new Chilean friends.

After the earthquake, we were all worried and shocked. Many of us sought contact with friends in Chile that Saturday morning. The newly-weds were quick to establish contact. They, along with their two kittens, were shaken but safe and only their television had fallen during the quake. Gradually, other friends came forth to ensure that they, too, were shaken but OK.

Santiago had indeed suffered some major damage, but the real devastation was a bit further south in Chile’s Bio-Bio, Maule and Araucania regions. A former colleague from my internship, an American from New Jersey, put it best in a mass message she sent out. She said, “I feel we have dodged a bullet just to watch it hit someone else.”

She went on to say: “While it is true that Chile is not Haiti- it is a far more developed country that has done a fantastic job of preparing for this disaster- it is important to realize that recovery from an event of this magnitude, no matter what country it strikes, requires months, if not years, of effort. Long after Chile disappears from the front page of the news (which it already has), schools will need to be rebuilt, jobs will need to be created, and the injured will need to be cared for. Furthermore, before the earthquake, Chile was on track to becoming the first “developed” country in Latin America within the next ten years. However, now that the earthquake has seriously affected the Chilean fishing and wine industries, this progress has been threatened.”

The positive side of this is that the people and government of Chile are pulling together to help with recovery efforts. Another former colleague from the Chilean Ministry of Education wrote in an email, “The most vital thing needed right now is already happening at a grassroots level: Chileans pulling together to rebuild, help in relief aid and comfort one another.”

Of course there is always more that can be done. My colleague wrote “Even one dollar can go a long way in terms of the Chilean pesos that will purchase materials needed to construct new homes, buy school supplies for affected students, give medicine to the sick and get the country back on track. Please remember that the fact that you can’t help everyone doesn’t mean that you can’t help anyone, and the amount of money you would spend on one movie or dinner out can make a great difference in the life of someone who has lost all they have.”

Ways you can help out in Chile:

Attend:

Chile Earthquake Relief Fundraiser in D.C.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
5:30pm – 9:00pm
Eye Bar
1716 I Street Northwest
Washington, DC

Or if you’re not in DC, other local fundraisers in your area.

Donate to:

Un Techo Para Chile (this organization did great work and is now attempting to build 30,000 temporary houses for displaced families).

International Red Cross/ Red Crescent Earthquake Relief

Habitat for Humanity

Also, please consider donating money to Haiti or any other relief effort the world over!

Oxfam

For more on Chile relief, check out this post by fellow La Vida Idealist blogger, Lauren Foukes. For additional resources, check out Idealist.org and Idealistas.org.

I wrapped up my internship with the Chilean Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) just as Chile’s new president, Sebastian Piñera took office following a marginal win over left-wing candidate Eduardo Frei. As a non-partisan observer, I had enjoyed strolling by the lively campaign demonstrations held by both parties in downtown Santiago after a day in the office.

Of course, as my colleagues working for MINEDUC’s English Opens Doors Program pointed out, elections were a time of uncertainty for government employees. An administration change would also create potential for policy change. With this in mind, I left the the busy streets and idyllic weather of summertime in Santiago and returned to Washington D.C., where record amounts of snowfall had brought the ever-bustling city to a complete halt.

With ample time to reflect on my recent internship (and write a paper about it for my grad program), I began to tackle the questions: Can English really open doors? and what place does the English language hold in Chile’s overall goals for growth and development?

As a former volunteer, I like to imagine that the time and energy I devoted to my students and my community in the Chilean Patagonia were beneficial not only to me personally, but also to the country in which I had been afforded the opportunity to live and work. However, from a more critical standpoint there is always the tension that arises when considering the use of English as a tool for economic and social advancement.

In many countries, the drive to learn English is tied to the desire to compete in a global market in which the dominant language is English. In many Latin American countries, opportunities to learn English are determined largely by class, which has often served to reinforce existing socio-economic gaps.

Since 2004, the English Opens Doors program has sought to eliminate that gap in Chile and bring a level of English fluency to the entire population within one generation. The program aims to do this by placing English speaking volunteers in public primary and secondary schools throughout all of Chile’s 15 regions, thereby creating language-learning opportunities for members of all of Chile’s social classes. Many Chileans are embracing the idea.

During the administration of former president Michelle Bachelet, the commitment to this objective was strong. The program grew from only 15 English-speaking volunteer teachers in 2004 to more than 300 volunteers in 2009 hailing from 14 different countries around the world.

As the new administration continues to promote Chile’s economic growth and participation in global markets, it seems that the focus on the importance of foreign languages is there to stay. Within the past year, the English Opens Doors program expanded to become the Languages Open Doors program, and this year new initiatives were launched for German, French and Mandarin Chinese-speaking volunteers as well.

*Editor’s note: this post was written before the Chilean earthquake. We will be posting an entry about what you can do to help on Monday.