Support Grassroots Earthquake Recovery in Mexico

September 2017 was a devastating month for Mexico. It started with an earthquake on the 7^th, followed by two others on the 19^th and 23^rd and multiple replicas. Hundreds of lives and thousands of homes and business were lost. Yet, the Mexican people joined forces and began rebuilding their communities. Thanks to your commitment, Fondo Semillas was able to support 24 of these groups in their slow process to recovery. Today, three years after the most famous of those earthquakes, we want to share with you the evaluation of our program.

Some of the highlights include:

• Women Rebuilding their Communities filled in a gap: Most local, national and international actors focused their response during the first five months and in housing. Our program focused on the mid- and long-term recovery and in the economic recovery, community building and emotional healing.
• Bridging networks is crucial to recovery: The organizations were able to create networks within their communities, which improved the effectiveness of the projects, and with other organizations, which allowed them to overcome obstacles.
• It is truly important to create women only spaces during the reconstruction: Groups of women coming together, having the confidence to self-organize and achieve objectives they have set for themselves is a constitutive and essential step towards movement building.
• Fondo Semillas was able to shift the power towards grassroots organizations.

 Another key aspect explains why disaster recovery actions should focus on women:

• Women’s and girls’ vulnerabilities in disasters are different from those of men due to pre-existing structural inequalities.
• Women’s and girls’ specific needs in post-disaster settings and reconstruction go ignored, leading to further violence.
• Women’s and girls’ contributions in reconstruction are not recognized nor valued and therefore remain hidden, perpetuating the vicious circle of patriarchy.

It might take 10 years for these communities to completely recover. Maybe even more with the current pandemic taking place worldwide. That is why in Fondo Semillas we are committed to continue supporting recovery efforts with our Resilient Communities program.

Thanks again for your continued support to our objectives. We hope you can share our evaluation so more donors understand the importance of having disaster responses with a long-term and gender perspective.