Venezuelan community groups and businesses in North Texas continue to send aid to their home country after last week’s deadly earthquakes. Two back-to-back quakes killed an estimated 1,500 people and injured thousands of others, with many still trapped or unaccounted for.

Local Efforts

Maria Fernanda Freites, known as “Beba” to her friends, didn’t waste time in organizing efforts to send help home. She and a group of women got together to cook food such as sopa de pollo and chuletas de puerco, which they’re giving out in exchange for donations — like non-perishable foods, medical supplies, clothes and shoes, and personal hygiene products.

Freites told KERA in Spanish that she has paused her work as the owner of a nail salon to focus on these efforts. She and her friends have been working almost nonstop since news of the earthquakes.

Milagros Coromoto Martinez Oropeza is from the state of Apure, near the northern part of Venezuela. She stopped at Freites’ home to find comfort around friends. “I’m devastated. My heart and soul are in pieces,” she told KERA in Spanish. “I have my family on my mother’s side who were affected. My uncle died and his sons are missing. They still haven’t given us any news. This is devastating.”

Oropeza, who has been in the U.S. since 2018, said it’s Venezuelan people throughout the world who are making efforts to help people affected by the earthquakes — not the government.

Original reporting: Fort Worth Report — read the source article.