Camilla Forte/Borderless Magazine/Catchlight Local/Report for AmericaLocal organizations and restaurants are mobilizing to collect aid for Venezuelans impacted by two of the country’s biggest earthquakes in the last century.
Chicago organizations are coming together to provide relief for those impacted by one of Venezuela’s strongest earthquakes in over a century.
Two back-to-back earthquakes, at 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude struck Venezuela less than a minute apart along the San Sebastian fault last week — leaving more than 1,700 dead and thousands displaced.
Luciano Pedota, executive director at the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance, said the natural disaster, compounded with Venezuela’s already unsteady economic and political state, has “exacerbated the crisis.”
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The Illinois Venezuelan Alliance partnered with organizations across the Chicagoland area, including 11 Degree North, Auto Net Chicago, Rica Arepa and Issa’s Venezuelan Restaurant, among others, which are all serving as donation sites.
“This is a way to do the little bit that we can to help the people back in Venezuela,” said volunteer Karla Colmenares.
Still, Pedota noted that the disaster response has given the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance the opportunity to connect with other local Venezuelan organizations in the area.
“This is the kind of thing where a crisis brings people together,” Pedota said.
Some volunteers who joined the organization on Friday say they view these relief efforts as a way to give back to their communities, even from afar.
“Those of us who have left the country and receive this kind of support feel this frustration or guilt for being here,” said volunteer Mariangel Canela. “This, in a way, comforts us and makes us feel a little more at ease knowing that we are indeed helping them…”
For volunteers like Colmenares, it’s time for Chicago’s community — Venezuelan or not — to “show up for our people.”
“It is a moment for everybody in the world to come together and show up the same way that I believe Venezuela has shown up for everybody for so many years,” she said.
Tara Mobasher is Borderless Magazine’s newsletter writer and reporter. Email Tara at [email protected]
