Hurricane Stan: Partnership in Action
In October 2005 Hurricane Stan struck Southern Mexico. As well as damage form strong winds, severe damage was caused by the landslides and flash floods following intense rainfall.
In the valleys, rivers broke their banks, washing away cars and houses and leaving debris in their place. The power supplies, telephone networks, and transport infrastructure was brought down, making it difficult to coordinate relief efforts for remote farming communities whose livelihoods had been washed away by the landslides.
In the Chiapas, where our grower partners are based, coffee is the main source of income for thousands of smallholder farmers.
Farmers suffered damage to coffee crops and equipment, as well as the loss of other crops and animals. Cafédirect instigated an immediate appeal in response to the devastation caused. Funds from our Producer Partnership Programme were provided to finance an immediate relief and reconstruction initiative, and total support was over £100,000.
Most of the funds were used to repair coffee drying patios, repair water pipes, buy food and restore wet milling stations. The photos on the right show San Fernando members organising some of the materials for their reconstructive work.
Nearly 3,000 families received support from Cafédirect’s emergency response, and though damage was too extensive to be fully covered by these funds, according to COMPRAS, the umbrella organisation for the four Mexican coffee partners most affected by the disaster, it was “the best and most generous support received for the coffee producer organisations to be able to rehabilitate their production capacities and ensure their economic survival after the damages”.