By Dane Salinas | Project Leader
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” This 19th Century British proverbial saying is an example for the reason we are closing this project and moving the donations to long term and sustainable solutions; we’ll do this so we can continue supporting the people from the affected areas with more specific and effective solutions. We won’t leave them alone! When a disaster arrives as it happened here, people lose their livelihood, all the material stuff they used to have (food, clothes, money, kitchens, beds, chairs, and their entire houses), and even their lives. They can’t “learn to fish” if there’s no food to make them strong, and no roof to give them shelter; so in behalf of the people you supported we would like to say:
Thank you!
“We were trying to form our ‘community bank’, but soon after came the flood and we got delayed because we did first what was the priority: our lives, our livelihood, and to overcome what happened.” A flood victim who is participating in our programs.
With the money you gave us we helped directly three communities in Guerrero: Banco de Oro with 40 families; El Arenal with 30 families; and Comaltepec with 40 families as beneficiaries. In Oaxaca, we went to the municipality of Santo Domingo Teojomulco, where your donation benefited approximately 20 families. Yo quiero Yo puedo (IMIFAP) additionally developed educational materials on what to do in case of natural disasters for the community members. The materials are brief and easy to read, with simple and concrete instructions in themes like: first aid; personal and household hygiene; taking care of the babies in a case of a disaster; how to store and prepare food; how to store water in order to avoid diseases; team work, and management of their emotions. There are materials for both adults and children, as it is important that kids learn the basic instructions too. Yo quiero Yo puedo (IMIFAP) has also developed a 10-hour risk prevention course for the communities.
With your donations we helped the communities to face their imminent emergency, so at least they had food and shelter to survive, but… now what? What’s next? After more than a year and a half from the floods they still need our support; they still need to “learn how to fish” for themselves instead of just “receiving fish”. Most emergency help programs around the world leave the communities after a while. We won’t leave them alone! We’ll continue our support with what we do best: empowering them by facilitating the human, social, and economic development of the people from the region. We support them so they can stand by themselves and become the agents of change from their own communities and have long terms results.
“The experience I have had (with Yo quiero Yo puedo) with the group we have is that it has taught us to save money and learn about different jobs we can do by ourselves truthfully… in reality.” A man from the community participating in our programs.
We would like to thank you again because without your support and trust we would not have been able to aid the people in need. This is just the beginning! Soon you will hear from us as we will bring new projects and programs to GlobalGiving! You can continue helping us too with our other program we have active in GlobalGiving about children and education. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-mexican-children-to-study/ Help Mexican Children to Study
Best Regards
Dane Salinas
Links:
By Anna-Emilia Hietanen | Project Leader
By Anna-Emilia Hietanen | Project Leader
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