Dear friends of Healing Waters International,
Hurricane Irma and the earthquake off the coast of southern Mexico occurred near where Healing Waters International has ongoing water project operations and local in-country staff and offices.
Hurricane Irma passed by the northern coasts of both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We’re thankful that all of our country staff and their families are safe and have seen little impact of Irma in their immediate vicinity, including our offices. We are also not aware of any water project sites that have been significantly impacted by the storm. In large part the island of Hispaniola was spared catastrophic impacts that would call for large scale response.
The earthquake epicenter was located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, the two states where HWI currently has operations. All of the HWI Mexico Staff and families are safe and only one staff member incurred what I understand to be some minor damage to her home.
The team has mobilized our water project in Espinal, Oaxaca to distribute water to local residents in need who have been impacted by the quake. In addition, with the support of our partner Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, we have quickly set up a water purification system at a Nazarene Church Juchitan, Oaxaca to temporarily provide water to that community in response to the emergency.
Disaster relief and response is a complex activity requiring pre-planning, resource pre-staging, scalability and coordination with large disaster relief agencies and government officials. The mission of Healing Waters has been and still is long-term sustainable community development in the WASH sector, which requires a very different set of capabilities and resources. While this is our focus, we stand ready to support the disaster response efforts of dedicated disaster response organizations as well as our strategic partners such as Food for the Hungry, Compassion International, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and many others.
Thank you for your continued prayer for the people of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and for your passionate support as we continue on our mission to turn thirsting individuals into thriving communities and bring an end to the Global Water Crisis in our lifetime.
Thankful for God’s Grace,
Rob Anthony
CEO
Healing Waters International