Thank you to Latinx Technology & Community Center intern Cynthia Solis-Davila for assisting with interpreting during interviews for this story.
As the coordinator of the health and family services department at Flint’s Latinx Technology & Community Center, Paul Fereira is used to connecting families with vital resources. After two devastating earthquakes in Venezuela on June 24, Fereira now finds himself helping families here collect resources and ship them to people in need in a completely different country.
The Latinx Center is currently running a donation drive to help millions of people impacted by two major earthquakes just seconds apart – one measuring 7.2 and the other 7.5 on the Richter Scale. Current estimates have the death toll at more than 1,700, with thousands of others injured. There has also been major damage to infrastructure in the country and the healthcare system has been overwhelmed. Aside from just the humanitarian aspect of the crisis, it is particularly personal for Fereira, who is originally from Venezuela.
“I was born in Venezuela, and I lived in Venezuela for 31 years,” Fereira said, noting that he moved to Colombia and lived there for eight years due to the political unrest in Venezuela before being selected for a resettlement program in the United States. He’s lived in Flint for over two years and has been working at the Latinx Center for just over a year.
The donation drive is collecting a wide range of items based on what first responders and organizations on the ground in Venezuela say they need. Those include healthcare supplies like first aid kits, alcohol, bandages, and gauze as well as over-the-counter medications, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products, masks, batteries, and more. The Latinx Center’s Facebook page has a complete list of items that are being accepted, in English and Spanish. It also has a list of items that they currently cannot accept and ship internationally. All donations must be properly packed and sealed so that they can be shipped.
Asa Ascencio Zuccaro, executive director of the Latinx Technology & Community Center, said that because of the many deep connections the organization has in the community, it is common to see many people pulling together to help others in emergencies like this.
“So the immediate thing we see is exactly what is unfolding before us, this collective action and organizing, people coming together around a cause to try to make an impact within their abilities to do so,” Zuccaro said. “The Venezuelan community that finds themselves making Flint their new home, having that connection to all those loved ones back home, they all reached out and were wanting to do something to try to help the people still in Venezuela. So what I love to see is people coming together to try to do something about a problem that they see. And the Latinx Center, we’re a perfect organization to try to uplift and host something like these efforts. And then simultaneously, we have just a network of other Latino organizations supporting this effort that we get to partner with to make sure these items get shipped to Venezuela.”
Donations can be dropped off at the Latinx Center, located at 2101 Lewis Street on Flint’s eastside, Monday-Thursday between 3-6:30 p.m. For information or questions, call (810) 715-5050. The center itself is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., so if the donation time won’t work, other arrangements can be made to drop items off at other times.
Among the people in the community who stopped by to make donations were Flint residents Moisés and Dulce. They’re originally from Mexico, but moved to the U.S. and Flint because they have family in the area. Now, Moisés has started a landscaping company.
“I wanted to start a business and they found that here in Flint that was a possibility,” Moisés said.
They were inspired to donate simply because when their country has gone through hardships, others have supported them.
“Mexico has also gone through similar situations and that when they have experienced crises, other countries have come and helped them, and that now we feel a need to as Mexicans help other communities in other countries,” Moisés said. “It’s important to find a community like the Latinx Center because it helps support with different services. For example, like navigating the school system or with language. They have also helped a lot with starting small businesses and helping them expand.”
That concept of mutual support for all community members is exactly what the Latinx Center exists to build, support, and strengthen.
“We all live on this planet,” Fereira said. “We are all from different races, have different skin colors, but that all doesn’t matter, the borders don’t matter. Here we have an opportunity to all come together where we can help each other and help move forward and help with progression and help better everyone’s lives. This means a lot for all the families in Venezuela. This means so much to them, and by just helping a little, it can really help out a community and a country that’s in need.”
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