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Kindness

Messages of Solidarity from Ecuador to Mexico After Earthquakes #WATWB

“The healing power of even the most microscopic exchange with someone who knows in a flash precisely what you’re talking about because she experienced that thing too cannot be overestimated.” 
― Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

 

We are the world blogfest

Welcome to September’s installment of the We are the World Blogfest, where we share positive news on the last Friday of each month. Thank you to this month’s WATWB co-hosts: Michelle Wallace, Shilpa Garg, Andrea Michaels, Peter Nena, and Emerald Barnes.

 

Once your life has been turned upside down by a natural disaster and you have recovered, you are in a unique position to assist those who have theirs turned upside down by a similar one.

 

This month, Mexico suffered a pair of devastating earthquakes, first an 8.1 on September 7, then a 7.1 on September 19. Much of the world sent aid. I am writing about this article on Andres Drouet, a priest from Manta, Ecuador who organized aid for Mexico. It caught my attention because Manta is the city I visited with post-earthquake makeshift camps in 2016 (you can read that post here).

 

Messages of solidarity written on cans of tuna, bags of dry goods, and toiletries let those suffering know that they are not alone. Ecuadorians remember receiving similar messages from Mexico following the Ecuador earthquake.

 

TeleSUR photo
Messages of Solidarity from Ecuador on donations for Mexico
Image from TeleSUR article

From the article:

Coastal Ecuador, after suffering one of its worst earthquakes that killed more than 600 people, is sending aid to Mexico after its own recent quake.  

Following Mexico’s natural disaster, Andres Drouet, a priest from Manta who experienced the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador last year, organized his community to join the rescue effort.

“This solidarity is born because we lived the same thing and we know how terrible it is,” Drouet told teleSUR. “We’ve had the experience of an earthquake and know of the necessities that arise immediately after it.” 

People who brought donations included small messages of hope, like “Ecuador Is With You” and “Be Strong Mexico.” Donors sending aid to Ecuador following its own earthquake wrote similar messages.

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Read other WATWB stories on Emily in Ecuador here.

I am a US Expat in Ecuador. I grew up on a Minnesota farm, worked in IT in California's Silicon Valley, then moved to a coastal Ecuador fishing village. My goal is to share Ecuador with you, one snippet at a time. Topics include attractions, compassion, ecotourism, Ecuador products, everyday Ecuador, and flora and fauna. Please let me know what you would like to read more about!

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