Earthquake in Chile: How to Help

This past Saturday, February 27th at 3:34 AM Chilean local time there was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake that lasted for approximately three minutes causing a lot of destruction throughout Chile.

Mozilla has a strong volunteer community through both ChileMoz and Firefox Chile.  In October 2009 a number of Mozilla employees and community members spent a week in Santiago, Chile for the first Mozilla Hispano Camp and participation in Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre.   We are very fortunate to know that most of our community members are doing well and have survived the earthquake.

Below Rodrigo García Segovia of Firefox Chile (www.firefox.cl) talks about the recent earthquake and ways you can get involved:

Follow Updates from our community members
Follow updates from some of our community members through Twitter:

• Rodrigo García (rodchile)
• Francisco Collao Garate (pcollaog)
• Eduardo Escárez (eduardoe)

Text Your Support for Chile
Text a donation to Chile through one of several organizations via the Mobile Giving Foundation.

• Text CHILE to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross
• Text CHILE to 23583 to donate $10 to Habitat for Humanity
• Text CHILE to 20222 to donate $10 to World Vision
• Text CHILE to 50555 to donate $10 to the Friends of World Food Program
• Text CHILE to 52000 to donate $10 to the Salvation Army
• Text REBUILD to 50555 to donate $10 to Operation USA
• Text 4CHILE to 50555 to donate $10 to Convoy of Hope
• Text CHILE to 864833 to give $10 to the United Way

Financial Support
The Huffington Post did a great write-up of different relief organizations.  Rodrigo García Segovia, one of our community members from Santiago, Chile would like to point out the two official recommendations that the Chilean government are endorsing:

• Caritas Chile
  Is the official organization of the Catholic Church in Chile to help people in emergency situations.  One of their biggest needs is financial support so they can purchase food and setup temporary homes.  To donate through this organization click here, select “Emergencies” and then select “Earthquake in Chile 2010” from the drop-down menu.
• Cruza Roja (Red Cross)

Note: We still have not heard from Mozilla community member, Javier Martínez Ortiz.  If you have any information about his whereabouts please add details here.

3/3 Update: We finally reached Javier – both he and his family are fine.  A special thanks to the entire community who has been concerned with his safety.