This past August, GlobalGiving’s Mexico Field and Evaluation Team traveled around the country to visit with our nonprofit partners and to experience firsthand the revitalization of communities affected by the 2017 Mexico Earthquakes.
These visits, conducted by our incredible team of eight field travelers, were an invaluable opportunity to explore the progress achieved by our nonprofit partners in the two years since the disaster. All reports pointed to measurable successes made possible through recovery funds raised by GlobalGiving donors like you.
From learning about the economic importance of traditional ovens in the Afro-Mexican community of Pinotepa Nacional to walking down a street filled with freshly-painted murals breathing life back into the earthquake-stricken Huejotengo, field travelers were met with stories of resilience in each location that they visited. Here’s what they’d like you to know about the project you’ve funded:
Centro de Accion para el Desarollo CODICE, Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca
Current Project: Engaging the community in sustainable land-management practices, and recuperating economic losses after the earthquake through agroforestry production.
“At first, the local women I met with were reluctant to comment on the success of the program. As we began to visit the dozens of homes that were damaged or destroyed by the earthquake, the evidence of reconstruction was everywhere from wall reinforcements to complete home restoration. In this community, it is considered impolite to be self-congratulatory, and they preferred to let the tour of the completed work speak for itself.”
AYOK A.C., Huejotengo, Morelos
Current Project: Strengthening women’s economic empowerment post-disaster through furniture building workshops and a new entrepreneurship program designed to market avocados as the main economic good.
“I was very impressed with the confidence and empowerment that AYOK has achieved in the community of Huejotengo. They have given hope to many that it is possible to prevent future destruction and recover from an event such as the 2017 earthquake.”
Manos que Reconstruyen Oaxaca, A.C., Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca
Current Project: Preserving the Zapotec culture and revitalizing the local economy through the creation of neighborhood murals and organizing traditional crafts workshops in marginalized communities.
“Community members come together to complete service projects around the community, like cleaning up the local river. Service credits can then be used to learn skills and complete activities at the community center (like hammock weaving and pottery). While the organization is relatively new (formed after the earthquakes), it is well-run and is well-respected by its constituents.”
Promotora de Servicios para el Desarrollo, S.C., Zacatepec Mixe, Oaxaca
Current Project: Risk mapping to reduce vulnerability to future disasters; diversifying and improving family income through cultivating a variety of crops.
“My visit to PRODER turned into a class immersed in the culture, geography, ecology, and tourism of the upper region of the Mixe mountain range. The knowledge that Fernando (Program Director) has to share and his rich, local expertise made this site visit an incredible experience.”
Thanks to your support of GlobalGiving projects like these we can fuel long-term recoveryof local communities affected by a disaster. That is why two years after the earthquake, with your help, we continue to build the capacity of our nonprofit partners in Mexico through grants, convening opportunities, knowledge sharing, and disaster preparedness workshops.
Many thanks for your support,
Andrea Osorio + the GlobalGiving Team
In the aftermath of the Mexico earthquakes that struck almost two summers ago, donors like you rushed to provide support to a region rocked by tragedy. While the funds raised came from all around the world, the recovery work of our partners is homegrown.
Fundación Tosepan: Tamakepalis is Nahuatl for “mutual aid”. For many of the indigenous tribes in Oaxaca impacted by the earthquake, traditional values of community members helping one another are vital in the long-term reconstruction of their societies. Faced with the severe lack of government assistance after the disaster, and located in a mountainous region that is not easily accessible to large aid organizations, community leaders are taking a local approach to rebuilding. These attitudes are reflected in decisions made by consejos de barrios (neighborhood councils) on the upcoming timeline for the reconstruction of partially damaged homes.
Now in the long-term recovery phase, Fundación Tosepan continues to work with neighborhood councils, university students, and local masons to rebuild homes using traditional adobe and seismic-resilient techniques.
Manos Que Reconstruyen Oaxaca: One of the primary goals of rebuilding after a disaster is to ensure the economic reactivation of a community, an objective this nonprofit hopes to achieve through its traditional craft and agricultural production. Workshops focused on preserving the art of high quality shoe-making with recycled materials, and teaching families techniques for self-sufficient community gardens, all contribute to an economy that is bouncing back stronger than before the earthquake.
Cooperación Comunitaria: After rebuilding 154 traditional ovens vital to the income of many women in the Isthmus de Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Cooperacion Comunitaria took a community feedback approach to better assess the continued unmet needs 20 months after the disaster. Its findings proved that the spirit of communal work groups continue to underline the recovery process. In May, the women of the community organized a tequio (traditional work group) to host a celebration of local construction workers who worked incredibly hard to rebuild homes and centers of gathering.
This is just a snapshot of the amazing projects shaping the long-term recovery of regions affected by the 2017 earthquakes. Donations like yours continue to support local organizations in their mission to be led by traditional communal values, an approach that allows all members of the community to rebuild together.
With gratitude,
Andrea
A year and a half ago, an 8.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Mexico and was followed just days later by a second, 7.1-magnitude quake. The devastation was widespread and the recovery is still ongoing—and donations like yours are making a difference.
This past October, GlobalGiving hosted our first class of Disaster Feedback Fellows, a group of ten leaders in disaster recovery who came to Washington, D.C. to attend and speak at the 2018 Feedback Summit, promote their disaster recovery projects to peers and funders, and to learn from other community response teams.
Take a look at what two of the Fellows are doing at organizations like Fondos Semillas to give women a voice in recovery and Cooperación Comunitaria to build back stronger and more resilient in Mexico!
Here’s a look at the work being done by GlobalGiving partners with your support:
Manos Que Reconstruyen Oaxaca, A.C. is hosting workshops for local women affected by the earthquakes to safeguard local knowledge and crafts as well as generate more income for themselves and their families in order to rebuild their homes.
Construyendo Comunidades Integrales, A.C. is harnessing the power of volunteers to join with their construction workers to rebuild a kindergarten classroom destroyed during the earthquakes. The materials used (galvanized steel wire of high strength) will provide a long term safe space for the students. They are also helping rebuild the homes of the Torres and Nava Juarez families.
Fundación San Ignacio de Loyola, A.C. is hosting community workshops and restoring the homes of 20 families. They are including each family in the design of their home through “participative construction” guided by construction specialists.
Fundación Comunitaria Oaxaca, A.C. is working to provide holistic disaster recovery from the reconstruction of homes to psychosocial support; from establishing detection, prevention, and response techniques to strengthening the local economy through small businesses.
Pro Ayuda a La Mujer Origen, A.C. is promoting psycho-emotional support, facilitating the reconstruction of housing, promoting sustainable economic growth through local artisanal textiles and embroidery, strengthening social bonds through meeting spaces and community input, and promoting community resilience through response plans and risk mapping.
IsraAID is further developing their Safe School program in which they support public school communities by providing a holistic, participatory and educational Disaster Risk Reduction approach and tools.
Thank you again for your generous support of the continuing work of helping communities in Mexico recover and rebuild. We're looking forward to sharing more stories of progress with you in the coming months.
With gratitude,
Belén + the GlobalGiving Team
Tomorrow will mark one year since a massive 8.2-magnitude earthquake shook Oaxaca and Chiapas, which was followed just twelve days later by the 7.1-magnitude quake that struck south of Puebla and was felt throughout central Mexico.
The two earthquakes resulted in catastrophic damage over a wide area—tens of thousands of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed, and more than 6,000 people were injured and 468 lost their lives.
Our community-led nonprofit partners have remained hard at work over the past year, striving toward a complete recovery with support from GlobalGivers like you. To date, 18,015 of you have raised $4.3 million to fund 14 vetted nonprofits that provided emergency relief in the days and weeks following the earthquakes and have now transitioned into long-term recovery work.
As we approach the anniversary of these two devastating earthquakes, we're launching a matching campaign that will match 100% of new donations to our vetted nonprofit partners continuing to help the people of Mexico recover and rebuild.
Here’s a look at what your donation has helped accomplish so far:
Thank you again for your generous support of our Mexico Earthquake Relief Fund, and for making the smart decision to donate cash to fund an effective, community-led approach to disaster recovery. We'll be back in your inbox in the coming months with more stories of progress toward a full recovery for people throughout the Caribbean.
Warmly,
Will Frechette + the GlobalGiving Team
As we move into the seventh month of earthquake recovery efforts in Mexico, we’re excited to share how your donations have helped local organizations identify needs in their community and achieve key milestones in critical projects. While we have seen significant progress in many projects, some of the work is still just getting underway, and it will require several years to support Mexico in its full recovery and development.
Today we’d like to highlight the inspiring work done by three GlobalGiving partners whose work your generous donation has supported. They’ve worked in their communities to develop creative, thoughtful restoration projects and implement sustainable, community-led programs.
Cooperacion Comunitaria A.C. has been working with community members in Ixtepec and Oaxaca from the initial stages of its recovery work. During the assessment of damage, women expressed the pressing need for kitchen repairs to sustain their livelihoods and feed their families. Their staff determined that 94 women needed 78 kitchens, 94 comixcales (a traditional oven), 72 bases for the comixcales, and 34 bread ovens.
Since that assessment, Cooperacion Comunitaria A.C. has held a kitchen-building workshop with women to assist in the efforts to recover traditional knowledge. They used your donations to buy and deliver 94 comixcales in four neighborhoods, 19,000 bricks, and material for the comixcal bases! Women are now working together to rebuild their ovens and kitchens—check out Cooperacion Comunitaria A.C’s video of a traditional comixcal in action! They plan to complete the construction of 70 houses and the remaining kitchens over the course of 2018.
Un Techo Para Mi Pais Mexico (A Roof for my Country) has chosen to work with communities in Mexico that were previously in need of development and thus at a higher vulnerability risk after the earthquakes. They have completed building 314 emergency homes in the State of Mexico, Mexico City, Morelos, Puebla, and Oaxaca! They’re planning to build an additional 221 houses, and they have expanded the work into Chiapas as well!
Finally, the International Community Foundation is working with numerous nonprofit organizations to ensure that students have access to education, quality psychological treatment, and filtration equipment for clean water. At the advocacy level, ICF is part of the movement to increase transparency in the reconstruction efforts known as the #CIUDADania19S project. They have joined forces with other NGOs in Mexico to insist upon clear updates and reports. Your donations have supported the following programs and many more:
On behalf of GlobalGiving and our partners on the ground, we would like to thank you for your continued generosity to support this recovery. Mexico is at a critical stage in the recovery process, and the work completed thus far inspires us for the future resilience to come!
GlobalGiving staff will be visiting our nonprofit partners responding to the earthquakes this spring, and we will be reaching out soon with additional stories and updates on the progress! Thank you for your commitment to earthquake recovery in Mexico.
Warmly,
Iliana + the GlobalGiving team
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