September 12
My courageous mama brought my family from Mexico for a better life. She was extremely resourceful. As a child, she would place me in dumpsters and have me get the things that looked useful. The families I’m trying to help already know struggle like this. And now they’ve lost EVERYTHING. The same despair and shock I saw in my mother, is in their eyes, now as I meet with them and they tell me of their burned homes, cars and the terrible grief of having their children experience the hardship they tried to escape by making the hardest journey in the first place. We are all walking around in apocalyptic smoke. I’m trying to do my one small part but my heart is breaking and I feel so helpless.
September 13
Good morning all, I’m off to help families so I’m sharing a catch up text I sent my sister as an update for those following:
Hi Sis
Thanks for your call. I’ve been extremely busy every day helping the undocumented community. I’m pretty exhausted but am living on adrenaline. Hundreds of families are affected. So many were so proud that they owned their own mobile home but were still living day to day so did not have insurance. And many had most of their family living in their mobile home communities together, so they don’t have as many tias/familiares to go to for shelter. I’ve been focusing on giving people cash bc they have nothing and I also am bringing food and other stuff from donation centers. But there’s only so many things they can accept bc they are all crammed into places. And no one wants to take more than their share. They ALL keep saying, when I urge them to stock up (bc there are tons of canned food/clothes donated) “no, no others need it too”
My heart is breaking over and over to see the difference in their struggle compared to the middle class families who lost homes. And how they have so much grace and resilience and generosity in the face of so much loss. I started off helping my friends then I got connected to more families. Everyone tells me ‘oh please help this person, que están batallando” and now I have 30 families and of course there are so many more but I’m running out of $.
If you know anyone that can help lmk. I’m coordinating with others who are distributing cash and we’re making sure we spread the money around. They need cash because they can’t use the few gift cards given if they don’t have gas and there are basic things like new underclothes that they can’t get as easily at donation centers. Above all though, they just need to feel human and have some money in their pocket to help their children with whatever comes up. Anyhow, i can’t sleep bc I’m on adrenaline so I thought I’d just catch you up a bit. Sean has been on with the kids and I’ve been out in the smoke or helping people coordinate resources all days so haven’t been able to call. And now we’re on fire watch (highrisk) again today so please pray too. Love you♥️
To Donate:
Go Fund Me: www.gofundme.com/f/almedafireslatinxrelief
Venmo: @sylvia-Poareo
Note:
I’ve been sharing my experience of the Almeda Fire in southern Oregon on my Facebook page, but I want to share it here so you can all walk with me on this journey. Click the “Almeda Fire” tag at the bottom of this post to read the entire series.