Mexico has come to the aid of the United States following Hurricane Harvey, sending Red Cross volunteers, food and supplies to a country whose President has proposed building a wall to keep the two neighbours apart.

Mexican volunteers wearing white vests labelled “Cruz Roja Mexicana” are distributing food and lending a sympathetic ear to some of the 1,800 storm refugees at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, a temporary shelter.

A caravan of Mexican storm relief was due to be shipped north for victims of a storm that has killed some 60 people and left tens of thousands homeless since first coming ashore 25 August.

“We all know that there are some agreements and disagreements between governments, but for the Mexican Red Cross and the volunteers from the Mexican Red Cross, we are more than glad to be helpful and do some stuff to help people,” said Gustavo Santillan, one of the Mexican Red Cross volunteers.

Mexico was assembling relief for Harvey but the United States had not yet defined what help was required, a senior Mexican government official told Reuters.

Some 25 trailers were being prepared with rice, beans, coffee and chocolate along with 300 beds, nine generators, mobile kitchens, telecommunications equipment and personnel including paramedics and doctors, Mexico’s foreign ministry said.

“Mexico is ready to help those affected by Harvey,” Carlos Sada, Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for North America, told reporters in Mexico City on Tuesday. “It’s a demonstration of our neighbourliness, a show of solidarity.”

One teary-eyed storm refugee in Houston said she was moved by the Mexican aid, especially considering the difference in wealth between the two countries, and it was wrong to try to shut out Mexicans.

“We don’t have time right now to put up borders and block Mexico, we need to come all of us together and work together,” said Bertha Navarette, 63, an evacuee from Pasadena, Texas.

US President Donald Trump made building a border wall a central theme of his campaign, saying Mexico was sending “rapists” and drug dealers into the United States.

On Monday Trump scrapped a programme that protects from deportation 800,000 people brought to the United States illegally as children, largely by parents who were Mexican nationals.

Thomas Oney, a homeless man at the George R. Brown Convention Center, said Harvey had shown that neighbours had to work together.

“I would hope that the talk about the border wall will stop,” said Oney, 41.

Mexico previously came to the aid of its northern neighbour in 2005, sending supplies and 195 people including medical staff following Hurricane Katrina. It marked the first time Mexican armed forces had been deployed in Texas since 1846.

The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Show all 19 1 /19 The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A tattered U.S. flag damaged in Hurricane Harvey, flies in Conroe, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Lisa Rehr holds her four-year old son Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated with their belongings from Rockport, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People line up for food as others rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center AP Photo/LM Otero The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Volunteers with The American Red Cross register evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard help the residents of Cyprus Creek Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents wade through floodwater Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents walk along the flooded roadway of Texas 249 as they evacuate their adjacent neighborhoods EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A man floats past a truck submerged on a freeway flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued by airboat as they evacuate from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey James Archiable carries his bike through the flooded intersection at Taylor and Usenet near downtown Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A massive sinkhole opened up on a motorway in Rosenburg, a city 25 miles southwest of Houston, Texas Rosenberg Police The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on a boat in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees are airlifted in a US Coast Guard helicopter after flooding due to Hurricane Harvey inundated neighborhoods in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees leave a US Coast Guard helicopter after being rescued from flooding due to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents look on at a submerged motorway during a break in the rain in Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People photograph the submerged motorway interchange EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Debris lies on the ground after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas Pass, Texas AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Dominic Dominguez searches for his boat in a boat storage facility that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey near Rockport, Texas EPA

The 33 Red Cross volunteers now in Texas are working in Houston, Corpus Christi and Beaumont at the request of the American Red Cross, said Marco Franco, deputy director for Mexican Red Cross Disaster Relief.