More Masks Needed for Oaxaca: Will You Help?
So many of you have been very generous with repeated gifts since we started the Oaxaca Mask Project in April 2020, as soon as covid-19 reached Oaxaca and started to spread. Requests for masks continue. The need now is more in the remote villages than in the city, I’m told. Will you consider us again […]
We are still here! Covering Faces in Oaxaca
I must confess it is difficult to be away from Oaxaca for so long. I have peripheral news to give you about daily life other than what we all read. I’m in the same boat as you … depending on others to tell me what’s going on! Mostly, it’s the same story. The Orange Light […]
Continuing Thanks from The Oaxaca Mask Project: Alvin Starkman and Eric Zapotrek
We continue to make and distribute masks, although at a less frenzied pace! This week, Alvin Starkman from Oaxaca Mezcal Educational Tours picked up 60 masks from Kalisa Wells in El Centro. He gave 20 to folks he knows in San Dionisio Ocotepec. Villagers in San Pablo Guila asked Alvin if he could get them […]
Covering Faces: Oaxaca Mask Project Summary*
I left Oaxaca on March 12, 2020, for what was to be a two-month return to the USA, first to visit family in California for a week, and then to check on my North Carolina apartment. I landed in Los Angeles to see my son and brother, with a plan to visit my sister in […]
Celebrating Father’s Day–With Flowers and Masks!
First, a bouquet of flowers for all the dads out there — past, present and future! The Oaxaca Mask Project is percolating along. We have made and distributed 3,110 masks so far throughout Oaxaca, and continue to do so. This week Kari Klippen-Sierra will take 150 masks to two IMSS hospitals (public health) in Oaxaca […]
A Letter and A Story: The Oaxaca Mask Project
First, the letter I sent to our most recent donors yesterday — people who made gifts over the last two weeks. Read on for a story from Kalisa Wells about giving out our masks on the streets of Oaxaca. Dear Friends, Your gifts over the last two weeks topped us off at receiving over $10,000 […]
Oaxaca’s EnVia Foundation Gives Out Masks
We know it takes a village to make a difference. And Oaxaqueños and gueros know how to do this. Last month I asked Jacki Cooper Gordon, who volunteers with EnVia Foundation (and is also president of The Oaxaca Lending Library), if she would receive a box of 100 face masks to distribute to them. Of […]
Words of Gratitude for Masks: Oaxaca Mask Project
Cristy Molina Martinez is my eyes, ears, hands and feet on the ground in Oaxaca. She is a teacher who lives in Teotitlan del Valle. She has been working to make and distribute masks throughout the Tlacolula Valley for the past two months. She writes me almost daily with updates. We are making and distributing […]
Oaxaca Face Masks for the Good
In the despair that has gripped the United States of America in the last week that peels away once more deep-seated and unresolved racial disparities and undue police force that plague us, I have found succor in focusing on The Oaxaca Mask Project. These times demand us to be proactive to make change for the […]
Phase II, Oaxaca Mask Project, Starts Today
COVID-19 cases are rising in Oaxaca and the villages. This week’s news reports closures at Abastos Market (Central de Abastos), the huge central food distribution center in Oaxaca city due to high rates of disease. People are testing positive in villages in the Tlacolula Valley. Concern is rising. Demand for face masks is stronger. We […]
The Oaxaca Mask Project Report #6: The Final Push
This is our final push for now to make and distribute masks in Oaxaca and surrounding villages. We need your help. Will you make a donation today to give us the means to get 300-500 more masks made this week? To do this, we want to raise $1,250 more. To date, we have made and […]
The Oaxaca Mask Project Report #3: Thanks to the Makers–Our Heros
As it is said, It takes a village, and we have one! Women are sewing masks in Oaxaca city, Teotitlan del Valle, Tlacolula de Matamoros and throughout the USA. Mask-makers in the US are friends who have responded. They are mailing me masks. I will then send the masks via DHL to Oaxaca using funds […]
The Oaxaca Mask Project: Progress Report #2–Thanks to Donors
Good News! We have 600 masks ordered. 200 will be delivered by the end of this week and ready to be distributed. 400 masks are being sewn now and we hope to get them into people’s hands by the end of next week. Ojala! We have four mask-makers in Teotitlan del Valle, one in Oaxaca […]
The Oaxaca Mask Project: Progress Report #1
As of today, The Oaxaca Mask Project has raised $1,831 USD received gifts from 31 generous people ordered 300 masks for delivery in the next 10 days help from Eric Ramirez and Zapotrek eco-tours help from Kalisa Wells help from Alvin Starkman and Mezcal Educational Tours to distribute masks to San Marcos Tlapazola and help […]