Pereira (Colombia) (AFP) – Nine-year-old Sebastian paints a portrait of his family home, unable to comprehend that it no longer exists after the powerful quake that shattered western Colombia this week.
Issued on: 14/08/2026 - 21:08
3 min Reading time
The little boy adds a bright rainbow, a shining sun and a tall tree to his illustration, while other displaced children paint alongside him at a shelter in Pereira.Much of the city was devastated by Monday's 7.4-magnitude earthquake, which killed at least 281 people and injured thousands more across the affected area.Sebastian gifted the painting to his father, Alexander Fernandez."He's always thinking about the house. He keeps saying I should take him to see it," said the 27-year-old whose workplace, a carwash, also fell to pieces in the temblor.
Thousands of families across the quake zone have been made destitute © Luis Acosta / AFP
