To most students, February means Presidents’ Day Weekend, Dance Marathon and, of course, Valentine’s Day. This year, what about Tabasco Flood Relief Awareness Month?

Unfortunately, few people are even aware that a catastrophic flood hit the state of Tabasco, Mexico in late October 2007. The region is still struggling to recover and rebuild.

And that’s what a coalition — one consisting of individual students and groups such as Ballet Folklorico, Bolivar House, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), Stanford Concert Network and Stanford Latino Law Students Association — is trying to change.

Some have called the flood, which also damaged the neighboring state of Chiapas, Mexico’s worst disaster in the past 100 years.

“Over a million people have been affected, and thousands have lost their homes,” said Chris Sully J.D. ‘08. “The flood affected communication and transportation, so many people didn’t know where their loved ones were or if they had survived.”

In addition, the flood has been a blow to the national economy, as Tabasco houses a large portion of the oil that contributes to the country’s revenue.

“The pictures were pretty shocking,” said Jacqueline Silva Sanchez J.D. ‘10. “In the capital city, you’d literally just see the points of houses.”

During initial efforts soon after the flood, individual students banded together and worked independently of other groups. Within a week or so after the flood hit, Silva Sanchez and other law students decided to collect canned goods. Other organizations, such as MEChA, ultimately joined the movement as it began to coalesce.

In order to build momentum, the self-proclaimed coalition “of the willing” designated February for raising awareness about the cause, and they decided to channel all fundraising efforts into house reconstruction. ProViVah, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Mexico, will build a house for every $2,000 raised; around $2,300 of the target $10,000 has been raised so far.

Past fundraisers have included an off-campus party at Blue Chalk Cafe planned by law and business students, and an expert panel to raise awareness. See box at rightr for upcoming events. Also underway is a trip to Tabasco to aid local businesses.

After all, “we’re doing a month-long awareness event, but the need is not going away at the end of February,” Sully noted. “Helping to get these people’s lives back together is going to take a long time.”

Students emphasized the importance of publicizing the issue, which has suffered from a severe lack of exposure.

“The disaster was just as bad or — and in some ways worse — than Katrina, yet it received very little coverage outside of Mexico,” Silva Sanchez said. “It was really shocking because the flood happened on a Monday; the news came out on BBC on Wednesday and in the United States on Thursday. Eighty percent of the state was underwater, roughly equivalent to the state of Massachusetts being underwater. Area-wise, this was bigger than the area affected by Katrina. And it was in the UK before it was here.”

In fact, the issue received such small coverage in the U.S. that students like Silva Sanchez faced problems transporting collected goods to Tabasco. At first, they found few willing to help. One man in Sonoma Valley offered to drive the supplies down to Mexico in his truck.

“He was literally the only person in Northern California collecting at that point, and logistically it’s kind of tricky to get to Tabasco,” said Silva Sanchez, who had made numerous calls through the Mexican Consulate in San Jose to find people who might be able to help with the effort. Luckily, she said, Mexicana Airlines offered to fly the materials down.

According to Liz Rivera ‘08 — a MEChA member whose relatives were forced to evacuate — one of the goals is to get people to think about the larger picture.

“What were the effects and why didn’t this disaster get more media coverage?” she asked, “Why is it important to know how this disaster affects us and the society we live in?”

This will not be the last time the Gulf of Mexico is struck by tragedy.

“The U.S. and Mexican economies are so closely tied together,” Sully said. “There are over a million people that are in dire need of help, and we’re in a position to be able to help them. And because of the similarities to Hurricane Katrina, we think that we can learn something about how to better respond to what’s still going on in New Orleans and also in the future.”

If Americans are uninformed, they will “miss a huge part of not only the problem but the solution,” Sully said. “This natural disaster in itself has nothing to do with nationality, race, social class, gender or politics. A natural disaster doesn’t really care what country you’re in. It may be a ‘natural’ disaster, but it requires a ‘human’ response.”

Rivera acknowledged that “it’s almost impossible for people to contribute to every single effort on campus.” In the meantime, however, all of us can help out just by taking notice. “Hopefully our efforts inspire others in the future,” she said.

Check out http://mecha.stanford.edu/tabasco/ for updates and more detailed information.