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Aid groups across the country are organizing to try to help Venezuelans after last month's twin devastating earthquakes. That includes people in Atlanta, which is home to one of the largest populations of Venezuelan immigrants. Member station WABE's Lily Oppenheimer reports.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #1: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #2: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #1: (Speaking Spanish).
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LILY OPPENHEIMER, BYLINE: Volunteers in Atlanta's Venezuelan store have spent days packing boxes with emergency supplies.
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OPPENHEIMER: It's usually a bodega/restaurant stocked with Venezuelan cooking essentials, but now half the store is dedicated to the donations.
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OPPENHEIMER: Store owner Laurinda Pestana still has family in Caracas. Many of the regular customers do too. She says because of its faltering economy, Venezuela already had little resources. Now the earthquakes have left many people with nothing.
LAURINDA PESTANA: We have suffering so much stuff before, and now with the terremoto, it's worse. Like, the people cannot find anything at the pharmacy.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
OPPENHEIMER: She says one of the most important donations people can make - medications.
PESTANA: You know, Venezuela is not, like, a regular country. Like, it's very hard for us to find medicines there - and right now, of course, worse. Tylenol, ibuprofen, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, hygiene, (speaking Spanish).
OPPENHEIMER: Julio Camargo (ph) stopped by the Venezuelan Store to make a donation.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).
JULIO CAMARGO: (Speaking Spanish).
OPPENHEIMER: He has family in one of the hardest-hit areas in the northern states of La Guaira.
CAMARGO: (Speaking Spanish).
OPPENHEIMER: He says, "thanks to God, they're OK. They were trapped for a while in a collapsed building with their little dogs."
CAMARGO: (Speaking Spanish).
OPPENHEIMER: Camargo talks about the moment of total anguish for him and his family waiting for news from his brother. He says he didn't sleep, and witnessing the aftermath of the disaster is difficult for him.
CAMARGO: (Speaking Spanish).
OPPENHEIMER: Like both Camargo and Pestana, most Venezuelans have moved to metro Atlanta within the last decade. Pestana says now the area is a major hub for relief efforts.
PESTANA: We already send around, like, 85 boxes just for our store. Imagine another - other stores and other communities.
OPPENHEIMER: They are coordinating with Global Empowerment Mission, a disaster relief nonprofit out of Miami that was established after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. She says it's been a surreal year. Just months ago, the U.S. military captured former President Nicolás Maduro. But now, despite the country's vast oil reserves, Venezuelans are still dependent on foreign aid to survive this humanitarian crisis.
PESTANA: So thank God. Thank God we have a - like, a lot of community outside in Venezuela.
OPPENHEIMER: And she says it's not just Venezuelans who are organizing. She's seeing all kinds of people - Americans and immigrants - trickling into her shop and dropping off donations.
For NPR News, I'm Lily Oppenheimer in Atlanta. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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