The volunteer response mechanisms were intensified to support regions affected by several earthquakes that shook Mexico in September 2017. Collection centers were set up and supported to coordinate the restoration of family links nationally. During the month of September, 236 tons of humanitarian aid were received in collection centers located in 16 states of the country – aid that benefited more than 20,000 people.

It was like a "battlefield from a scene in a war movie," is how one disaster management officer described villages after the tsunami of 2009, the worst natural disaster for Samoans in living memory. Despite the challenges that natural disasters present in terms of progress towards the MDGs, an incredible surge of post-tsunami volunteerism has surfaced to help communities recover and ensure that they could protect themselves against future calamities.