Actor Mel Gibson has donated US$1 million ($1.5m) to replace storm-damaged homes in Veracruz and the neighbouring Chiapas state in Mexico.

Mexican officials have presented victims of hurricane Stan with 109 homes that were partly funded by a donation from Gibson, reported AP.

The Braveheart actor filmed his 2006 Mayan-language movie Apocalypto in the Gulf  coast state Veracruz. Veracruz Governor Fidel Herrera said the Mexican government and a private charity paid for the rest of the cost of the homes.

Hurricane Stan struck Central America and southern Mexico in October 2005, damaging 40,000 homesin the country and killing 71 people in Chiapas.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Jan 19, 2008.