Disaster Profile

In September 2017, 3 earthquakes hit Mexico, affecting 8 states including Oaxaca, Mexico City, Chiapas, State of México, Guerrero, Morelos, and Puebla. On September 7, 2017, the strongest earthquake to hit Mexico in a century hit close to the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, with a devastating magnitude of 8.2.

The earthquake caused some buildings in Mexico City to tremble, prompting people to evacuate. It also generated a tsunami with waves of 1.75 metres (5 ft 9 in) above tide level, and tsunami alerts were issued for surrounding areas. Mexico's president called it the strongest earthquake recorded in the country, in a century. It was also the second strongest recorded in the country's history, behind the magnitude 8.6 earthquake in 1787, and the largest recorded globally in 2017.

Just 12 days later on September 18, a few hundred miles towards the capital, a 7.1 magnitude quake rocked Mexico, toppling buildings, breaking gas mains, knocking out electricity and sparking fires across Mexico City and other towns in central Mexico.

You can read more about the devastating impacts of these earthquakes here.

Following the earthquakes that struck Mexico thousands of children were unable to attend schools due to damaged and unsafe buildings. According to the Secretary of Public Education, 20,210 schools were damaged with 577 of them ending up in need of total reconstruction.

All Hands and Hearts recognises the importance of providing children and communities with a safe place to learn and has since be rebuilding schools across Mexico. Since September 2017, All Hands and Hearts has successfully completed 18 school builds impacting over 2000 children.

In June 2022, Hurricane Agatha swept across Oaxaca causing more damage to already vulnerable infrastructures. Within the municipality of San Pedro Pochutla, where AHAH was rebuilding schools following the 2017 earthquakes, 140 schools were damaged.