Devastating earthquakes rocked Venezuela over a week ago, and the Latino community in Austin mobilized to provide humanitarian relief.
Back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck the country last week on Wednesday. There are more than 2,295 dead and 11,000 people injured, NPR reports.
After the disaster, the Austin Venezuelan Association began organizing local donation drives. Business owners and volunteers alike have been pooling time and resources in any way they can to assist with the effort.
Venezuelan business owner Jose Mata said he cried for three days after hearing the news.
Mata, who owns an Austin moving company called SureMove, said he lent his warehouse to help with the donations. The association is now using the warehouse to receive pallets of aid as volunteers sort and package the goods inside.
"We pretty much put all our operations on hold. The trucks, the warehouse and all the logistics, ... everything is at the service right now of the humanitarian help for Venezuela," he said. "It has some impact on the business, but we do not care, and it is nothing compared with the impact that the earthquake had in Venezuela."
Mata said he's been working over 12 hours a day for nearly a week.
"We don't know each other," he said. "And this is my warehouse, but every day I have 20, 30, 40 people just helping out and making sure that all the aid goes to the right place."
Raul Mena, one of the volunteers, said he used his day off to help. The 31-year-old said volunteers have been helping however they can. His task for the day was to help fortify the pallets for shipment.
After the earthquakes, Mena began waiting to hear back from his family in Venezuela. He was scared for their safety, and the messages trickled in throughout the day. His family in Venezuela was OK, but once he realized the gravity of the situation, Mena said he began looking for ways to help.
All the donations that are sorted, packaged and wrapped by volunteers like Mena will be sent to Miami, where they will make their way to Venezuela, according to Elizabeth Gunz, the director of the Austin Venezuelan Association.
The group has been instrumental in raising goods and money in Austin for Venezuelans affected by the earthquakes. Gunz and her team helped organize a donation rally last weekend in Pflugerville, where the organization was able to collect 70 pallets of donations.
On Tuesday, she and other volunteers stood outside Plaza de Toros R3, a venue in southeast Travis County. It was only a few hours before the Mexico-Ecuador World Cup game, and the association was under a tent with Spanish radio station 107.1 La Z to collect donations from fans.
Spanish language radio host Jaime Zapatero, known as El Pato, donated shirts to anyone who chipped in and asked his followers online to donate as well.
Gunz said there's been a lot of help from the community, not just members of the Hispanic community, which is why the organization was able to have a successful drive over the weekend. The funds collected at Plaza de Toros R3 will help send the pallets to Venezuela and provide money for direct relief, according to Gunz.
"Everything counts, and everything that I am going to deposit is going to go to a good thing, so that's what it's all about," she said.
You can donate through the Austin Venezuelan Association's GoFundMe or through their website. The organization also posts on its social media accounts about opportunities to volunteer.
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