Chinanteca indigenous communities in rural northern Oaxaca were flooded after a storm inundated the surrounding rivers on September 18th. Families, already suffering from COVID19 and now houseless, are in an extreme state of emergency.
Flood waters rose over 6 feet and strong currents destroyed community members’ belongings and the year’s food harvest. Below is an except from a letter written by women of the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca (CIPO-RFM), a liberatory organization, who are suffering from the flood:
We are in a state of emergency. We are people of few resources that subsist off of our agriculture. All of our harvests are lost, and we have been left with nothing. The little that we had, we lost. We are without food and without drinking water as our well water sources were contaminated in the flood. Our children and elders are most vulnerable to the consequences of the devastation. We don’t have a health center, medications, or medics that can give us attention we need. With our basic food supplies lost, we currently have no way of feeding ourselves. We have many suspected cases of COVID19 and live in an area of high contagion risk. Now we are at greater risk with this disaster.
Neither authorities or aid has arrived to meet the affected communities' dire needs.
Support the women of CIPO-RFM and their families as they work to meet their most basic survival needs amidst the pandemic.
Endless solidarity with the indigenous of Oaxaca who struggle for the right to live.
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