The earthquake that hit measured an 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale. Pisco, Ica, and Chincha Alta were affected the most. The streets erupted into chaos as 85,000 homes came tumbling to the ground. As far away as Lima, downtown windows shattered at the force of the quake. The Ica church collapsed during Mass, killing seventeen and injuring scores more.

The government would later confirm 519 people dead and almost 1,500 injured.

Thousands of miles away, in Canada, a woman watched the news reports eagerly. She had been in the middle of making plans with her boyfriend to temporarily move to Peru, and his family happened to be in Lima. As such, her eyes were glued to the TV set as the images of the quake's destructive force were presented one after the other after the other. Almost immediately, Robin Poirier acted.

"We began an internet page as a campaign to gather donations from our friends and family," Poirier said. "Our goal was to help the fishing village of Cerro Azul, where my boyfriend and his family had spent their summers at the beach."

	ROBIN POIRIER NAME: Robin Poirier OCCUPATION: Vacation planner LIFE MOTTO: "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new" (Albert Einstein) FAVORITE BOOK: Blindness, by Jose Saramago PERSONAL HERO: Nelson Mandela DREAM IN LIFE: Become a foreign correspondent

Weighing her position against that of the people living in quake-affected areas, "not helping seemed unacceptable," Poirier said.

Poirier began receiving donations right away, notably from her employer, a company called Fresh Tracks, and members of her family. Then it was off to Peru.

At first, Poirier's efforts were rudimentary--she rented a jeep and began transporting non-perishable food items into Cerro Azul. But she knew she could do more.

"I knew that giving food and water as we did in Cerro Azul was one thing," Poirier said, "but being a positive, helping force right in the worst communities was on a higher level." It wasn't long before she had signed up with a group of teachers from Newton (a British school) who had organized a weekend expedition in Chincha.

Arriving in Chincha, Poirier described the scene and her own feelings at the sight of the destruction so near the quake's epicenter. "The amount of damage and loss shocked me, even after I had been to Cerro Azul just 50 kilometers [32 miles] north the previous weekend. There were entire neighborhoods that are now just piles of rubble. The houses of the poor are made primarily out of adobe, which is really a mixture of mud meant to mimic concrete. Not being able to hold up to the quake at all, kilometers of houses crumbled and flattened. Now and again there remained a doorway with no walls, or a roof attached to one remaining wall and then strewn across the ground on all its unsupported sides. I couldn't imagine them rebuilding the town the same way, or even really in the same spot."

	TYPICAL SCENE IN CHINCHA

The town's inhabitants--over 100,000 in number--had salvaged what they could from the rubble. The provisional shelters of survivors, loosely constructed from scraps of debris, cropped up amidst the ruins.

"At the time I was there," Poirier said, "many of [the city's residents] had found plastic bits and creatively strung them above their make-shift cooking areas and kitchens. There were countless families living outside under whatever temporary structure they could build." Poirier added that, in her opinion, most of the town simply needs a good bulldozing.

Poirier reported no visible government aid, and no indication that long-term aid was being planned after the initial food handouts.

	NIGHT CREW

And so Robin Poirier built houses.

Now, in Lima, Poirier is busy planning her next house-building expedition. She still works for her Canadian employer, long-distance. She plans on staying at least another year to aid in the post-quake efforts.

"The planning and fund raising for such an event does take a significant amount of time," Poirier said. "I currently have another organization that I hope to volunteer with that is set to be building houses in the Pisco area for at least the next six months, called Techo para mi Pais."

According to the Un Techo para mi Pais website, the group's goal is to build the first 100 emergency houses in Ica region.

"People seem to absorb the tragedy for only one or two days while it is in the media, and then go back about their daily lives," Poirier said. "People should try to relate more to the tragedies they see."

But surely not everyone can be expected to hop a plane to Peru? "It is obviously out of people's reach to fly down to Peru and build houses," she said. "The best way people can really help is to research out an organization they believe is making a difference and make a donation."

(For information on what you can do to get involved, see our Projects section)