Earthquake aid keeps flowing from Florida to Venezuela, with help from the US State Department
CARACAS: After her grandmother’s house in Caracas narrowly survived last month’s devastating back-to-back earthquakes, Alessandra Izaguirre was desperate to help Venezuela.
“Seeing my grandma and all these people affected made me feel like I had to do something, even if it was from the US,” said the 18-year-old, who has spent the last couple weeks preparing food for volunteers at the Doral, Florida headquarters of the nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission.
Izaguirre is one of thousands of people who have participated in an exceptionally large grassroots humanitarian effort based at GEM, supported by donations from across the US and beyond and still going strong nearly three weeks after the catastrophe.
Hundreds of volunteers still show up each day at GEM’s warehouses in Doral, where about half the population is of Venezuelan descent. They sort donated supplies –– curated to address the latest needs –– and prepare them for transport to Caracas on daily flights.
