Cristina Almeida has lived in Calgary for 10 years, but was born and raised in Ecuador. Most of her extended family—including parents, aunts, uncles and cousins—have been accounted for after Sunday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake that left over 300 people dead, but she’s hoping to help other victims.
“It’s been very stressful knowing about all the damage,” she told Global News Monday. “Thankfully my family and my friends, my closest ones are OK. However looking at pictures of the devastation and having my own family send me pictures of the situation there is very sad.”
READ MORE: Are the Japan and Ecuador earthquakes related?
Almeida remembers another earthquake she felt while living in the country at 10 years old.
“It was very stressful; it was very scary not being able to sleep—thinking that at any moment another one would come, a stronger one would come.
“If my family was safe or not…thinking about all the people out there…Just scary, all the thoughts that go through your mind; just hoping that nothing else happens.”
Sunday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake left a trail of ruin along Ecuador’s normally placid Pacific Ocean coast, buckling highways, knocking down an air traffic control tower and flattening homes and buildings. At least 350 people died, including two Canadians, and thousands are homeless.
Almeida is in talks with the Embassy of Ecuador in Vancouver to create a plan to collect donations in Calgary and send them to people in Ecuador trying to recover.
“The sad part is that the people that have the least are the people suffering the most,” she said. “They have lost everything: houses, whole families being buried under rubble at the moment. So that is the hardest part, knowing that we are so far away and we can’t do much being here.”
Almeida is searching for a place where she can store the donations while waiting to hear from the consulate on how to get items to Ecuador. Those wanting to help can contact Almeida at yychelpingecuador@gmail.com.
Watch Carolyn Kury de Castillo’s story above for what her family and friends are saying from Ecuador, and how World Vision is helping on the ground.
With a file from The Canadian Press and Global’s Erika Tucker