Worried Sponsors Learn Colombian Girl Is Found Safe
There was at least one scrap of good news out of Colombia on Tuesday for San Gabriel’s Paul Landrey, director of the U.S. ministry for World Vision, and his family: Maria Elisa Reyes, 6, is alive.
Paul and Carol Landrey and their daughter, Angie, 17, are Maria’s sponsors for World Vision aid, contributing a small monthly amount so that the 6-year-old can attend a Presbyterian school associated with the international relief and development organization.
Like most of the other 177 Colombian children at the World Vision project, she had been missing since Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted last Thursday, blanketing the town of Armero with mud and killing an estimated 25,000 people.
Late Tuesday, the Landreys received a telephone call from Bill Kliewer, World Vision executive director in Colombia, confirming that at least 22 of the World Vision project children survived--including Maria.
Landrey said the child was found with several other survivors wandering near her slum-area home on the edge of Armero. Landrey said Maria had been trapped in the mud but had broken free and was dazed, unable to tell where she was. It is not known whether her mother also survived, Landrey said Kliewer told him.
He said the little girl was bruised a bit, but not seriously hurt. She was taken to a hospital.
“We’re pretty excited,” Landrey said. “It’s great news. We hope to find more.”
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