Jewish Volunteers Help Mexico Recover From Deadly Earthquake
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Volunteers from the Jewish Agency for Israel have mobilized in two Mexican communities to help residents recover from a major earthquake earlier this month.
At least 96 people died in the 8.1 magnitude quake that struck off the southern Pacific coast on Sept. 7. The Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas were hardest hit.
The Jewish Agency’s Project TEN program, an international development program that operates volunteer centers in developing areas around the world, has sent nine volunteers — eight Israeli and one British, two doctors and two staff members — to work with the Oaxaca community.
The volunteers packed and distributed about 1,000 food parcels, clean water and early childhood packages consisting of diapers, milk substitutes and other necessities. The doctors treated injured residents, including many children.
Project TEN already had a center located in Oaxaca opened in 2013.
In the days following the earthquake, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would provide aid to Oaxaca and Chiapas in conjunction with the International Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Embassy in Mexico.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
