Mexico Earthquake Recovery
https://www.youcaring.com/Mexico_Eart...
On September 19th, Mexico City, Puebla, Morelos, and surrounding areas were hit by a 7.1 earthquake. Hundreds of buildings collapsed, some with families or students still inside. Rescue efforts continue in these areas and the extent of the damage and loss of life remains unknown. This massive earthquake came only 10 days after an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 devastated many areas of Oaxaca, Tabasco, and Chiapas on September 7th, when thousands of people were injured, hundreds died, and many more lost their homes.
The collaborative, selfless and generous responses of Mexican individuals and communities working together to recover from these earthquakes are impressive and inspiring, but financial support is greatly needed. On the one hand, we are raising funds for communities and poor families that do not have the economic resources to eat, pay medical expenses or rebuild their homes and businesses. But on the other hand, this effort is very close to our hearts as it is to support people who are our own family, friends, and places where we have grown up, lived, studied, and done community work.
Many of you have asked how you can help. You can directly aid organizations and fundraisers in Mexico - here is a good list of places to donate: http://comoayudar.mx/world.html. Most of these funds are for current disaster relief efforts across Mexico City and surrounding areas. However, we are concerned that money collected might not reach both the immediate needs and longer-term reconstruction efforts in poor, indigenous and rural communities that suffered horrible losses. Smaller cities and communities outside of the capital city are often left out of international news. While food, water and medicine are critical and needed immediately, many important buildings such as schools, hospitals and family businesses as well as farmland are destroyed, causing ongoing socioeconomic impacts and long-term recovery needs in order to rebuild whole communities.
Thus, we have set up this fundraising effort to collect money from our (and your) direct network of local communities, family, friends and colleagues abroad to donate it to local organizations where we know aid will get to those most in need and will go to the specific needs of each community. From the money we raise, we will donate to local organizations such as ADECO (Actions for Community Development) A.C. and Cooperación Comunitaria (Community Cooperation) A.C., Zapatistas (EZLN), as well as local community organizers, in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Morelos and Puebla. We will be completely transparent with this spending, promise to donate 100% of what we raise to trustworthy organizations and present proof of the donations.
In addition to our own donations, we have set a very ambitious goal of raising $10,000 towards these efforts. Together, we can reach this goal! Please donate as much as you can, knowing that your dollars, euros and pounds will go a long way. Any amount that you can donate is very welcome, for example US$10 can buy a lunch for one family, US$8 can provide medicine for one person, and US$2,500 to clear debris and rebuild a house roof.
We will leave this fundraising effort open throughout October with the hopes of raising as much money as possible. Please feel free and encouraged to share this among all of your networks, locally and internationally.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your solidarity and generosity.