A 7.8 Earthquake Devastates Ecuador

On Saturday evening a 7.8 earthquake sent a disastrous shake through Ecuador. It collapsed overpasses, brought down countless houses and knocked out the power in Gauyaquil (the country’s most populated city). The current death toll is 300 with 2500 injured and counting. As rescue teams struggle to reach some of the hardest hit areas due to road closures and landslides, this number will unfortunately rise.

A man stands in the rubble of what was once his home.

Waves for Water is heading out to Ecuador tomorrow to help out with the disaster response. Currently they’ve raised 31k through their site for the disaster relief, and are striving for $100k. If you’d like to donate, head right here.

In the past seven years, Waves for Water has developed a fine track record of assisting areas in need, from Haiti, to Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, Mexico and beyond. They’re set up to support the basic necessities of life: Food, water and shelter. They’ve responded to over 10 countries, and are still active in each, helping to develop healthy, locally managed, sustainable initiatives.

Searching through the debris, looking for anything salvageable.

W4W has a solid network already in place with Ecuador and their international team is currently on their way. They also have strong ties with the US Department of Defence units stationed in the country at the moment. The plan is to strike the hardest hit areas and implement their portable water filtration systems, focusing primarily on community centres and IDP camps before switching their focus to individual households.

It’s a beautiful thing that W4W’s doing. In Nepal, their local team (developed after their earthquake) took a further step and are leading programs in India, Myanmar and Thailand. Essentially paying forward the good deeds that have been done to them. Which we can’t help but applaud.

The seismic separation of roads, cars and human communication.