How Richmond's Venezuelan community mobilized after the earthquakes

How Richmond's Venezuelan community mobilized after the earthquakes

Volunteers, including Eduvigis Rincón with Ven Conmigo (left), sorting donations at Chamo's Arepa House before transferring them to the church on Monument. Video: Sabrina Moreno/Axios

Ana Chalita hasn't changed her clothes in three days. There's too much work to do.

  • The Richmond nonprofit leader with Ven Conmigo falls asleep with her phone in her hand, wakes at 3am to check messages from Venezuela, and forces herself to not watch the videos of how the twin earthquakes decimated the country she grew up in.
  • At least 1,700 lives have been lost. More than 50,000 people are still missing.
  • "If I see the hurt," Chalita tells Axios, "I will drown in it."

    • Why it matters: Instead, within 72 hours, Chalita helped mobilize the Richmond area's Venezuelan diaspora into one of its largest humanitarian relief efforts in recent history.

    The big picture: Venezuelan restaurants across Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield have turned into collection sites for nonperishable food, medicine and rescue supplies — in coordination with Ven Conmigo's five-person team.

  • Inside Innsbrook's Arepa Station, donation boxes nearly reached the ceiling over the weekend.
  • At Chamo's Arepa House in Chesterfield, some customers stayed to sort donations.
  • People with trucks at the Latino Farmers Market offered to drive supplies down to Miami, a major hub for coordinating shipments into Venezuela.

    • These were the donations at the Latino Farmers Market after a truck came by to take a little more than half. Photo: Sabrina Moreno/Axios

    Zoom in: By Sunday, First English Lutheran Church on Monument Avenue had transformed into a warehouse, with a human assembly line of 30-40 volunteers unloading boxes of diapers, bottled water, first aid kits and more in blazing heat.

  • "Food for Tsunami!" one yelled as he handed off a dog food donation, referring to the Venezuelan search-and-rescue dog that's found survivors and given people hope.

    • The human assembly line starting outside the church on Sunday. Video: Sabrina Moreno/Axios

    Behind the scenes, Chalita has activated a WhatsApp network of roughly 100 Venezuelan humanitarian organizations across the world, including inside Venezuela.

  • Ven Conmigo, which has raised almost $10,000, has also used monetary donations to buy supplies directly in Venezuela.
  • That includes thousands of arepas for responders in Caracas and La Guaira — one of the hardest-hit cities — diapers and hygiene supplies for displaced families, and demolition tools for firefighters.

    • What they're saying: "That's something we Venezuelans do," says Maly Fung-Angarita, co-owner of Con Salsa in Glen Allen. "We put everything aside and we're like, 'Vamos a ayudar.'"

  • "We're going to help."

    • The donations collected from the Richmond region on Sunday night. And this isn't even all of it. Photo: Courtesy of Eduin Serrudo

    Zoom out: In conversations with Axios, about 20 local Venezuelans shared that they're coping by refusing to sit still.

  • Many described the guilt that comes from not being able to be in Venezuela lifting the rubble themselves to help their people.
  • Some weren't able to contact their family until Saturday, three days after the earthquakes hit.
  • Others said their families were safe, but the tragedy felt personal. "It's not our family, but it's our family," multiple people told Axios in Spanish.

    • What they're saying: In the moments when the grief overwhelms, Chalita reminds her team to remember the impact of the small things: a flashlight, a blanket, one more meal.

  • "If we manage to feed the firefighter who pulled out a child, we accomplished a lot," she says.