Independently Owned, Locally Grown, Community Loved
Dr Sofia Fortunato. Photo credit: Zach Houtenville.
After Venezuela was rocked by a powerful earthquake last week, leaving thousands injured or still missing, a Whitsundays resident who grew up in the country is doing everything she can to help those affected.
On July 24th, twin earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude struck Venezuela, with the tremors felt from San Felipe to Caracas. The disaster has left parts of the country in ruins, claiming more than 1,700 lives; a number that is still climbing.
With telephone services disrupted and chaos unfolding in the wake of this disaster, many families have turned to online databases to report missing loved ones. Some of these databases have recorded as many as 50,000 people as missing.
“After the earthquake, all the help the Venezuelans have got has been from international rescue teams and things like that,” said Dr Sofia Fortunato, Venezuelan Lab Technician currently working at St Catherine’s College.
“Imagine that it's a country that already is going through such a hard time, and then you've got an earthquake that destroys thousands of buildings, there's a lot of people at the moment without a house.”
Dr Fortunato has called the Whitsundays home for the past seven years and has lived in Australia for a decade. She grew up in Venezuela before leaving in 2004 in search of a better life, moving to Norway to study biology, where she later earned her PhD.
While Dr Fortunato has built a life far from Venezuela, the crisis remains immensely personal. She still has relatives there, currently struggling to cope amongst the rubble around them.
“My cousin is there and she can't return to her apartment, she lives on the 10th floor,” Dr Fortunato said.
Feeling helpless from thousands of kilometres away, Dr Fortunato has instead focused her efforts on directing people to trusted organisations providing emergency relief on the ground.
She is encouraging the community to support the Venezuela earthquake appeals through Caritas and UNICEF, both organisations delivering targeted assistance to families and children affected by the disaster.
“I understand there's a crisis in Australia too and people are really struggling but anything will help,” Dr Fortunato said.
“$5 to just buy a bandage, that is enough.”
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