{"id":1003073,"date":"2026-08-15T20:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T20:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003073\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T20:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T20:40:17","slug":"colombia-earthquake-philadelphia-community-rallies-to-send-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003073\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia earthquake: Philadelphia community rallies to send aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colombia\u2019s earthquake recovery will be \u2018a long-distance race\u2019<\/p>\n

As of 10 a.m. Saturday, the drive had already collected around 50 boxes of supplies at the bakery drop-off, said Cristian Mar\u00edn, a member of Acci\u00f3n Colombia\u2019s governing board. The organization is planning to send donations collected this weekend to New York City, where the items will be shipped by plane to affected cities in the western part of Colombia.\n<\/p>\n

This is the first phase of what will be \u201ca long-distance race,\u201d said Mar\u00edn. The focus now is on getting urgently needed supplies to Colombia. As the country begins to rebuild, the organization plans to stay in touch with leaders on the ground in Colombia to continue to respond to the changing needs of affected communities.\n<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed by the earthquake<\/a>, according to the government of Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, who was inaugurated just days before the disaster. Thousands of schools, hospitals and community centers in more than 400 cities have also been damaged.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese first and second weeks, there maybe is an initial enthusiasm and we all want to help, but we can\u2019t forget from the third, fourth week onward that there are still many needs that will keep changing,\u201d Mar\u00edn said. \u201cHopefully we can also be there when the media attention suddenly drops, and we\u2019ll be present all the same.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"TwoJohana Borda, left, and another volunteer box and label donations for Colombia\u2019s earthquake victims at Amigo\u2019s Colombian Bakery in Northeast Philadelphia on Saturday, August 15, 2026. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

Coming together to do something to help people in her homeland was a \u201cheartwarming\u201d experience for Johana Borda, a 36-year-old resident of Philadelphia\u2019s Fairmount neighborhood who hails from Bogot\u00e1.\n<\/p>\n

She came to help out Saturday after seeing Acci\u00f3n Colombia\u2019s posts on social media.\n<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] doesn\u2019t matter how old are you, where are you from \u2014 we\u2019re here, we don\u2019t know each other,\u201d Borda said. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone here \u2026 but it\u2019s really good to feel that sense of community.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

She said stepping up with direct aid is necessary.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that if we don\u2019t do it for ourselves, we can\u2019t trust just the governments or other people to solve this problem,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we can do at least this, volunteer and [donate] at least a little bit, like $1, $5, like whatever you have, everything counts \u2026 We just need to be there for our people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Alfredo Rodr\u00edguez Ospina came to the bakery, which sits just a few minutes from his house, together with his 13-year-old daughter, who told him about the donation drive.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cColombia needs our support,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know that many countries and international organizations are supporting our country, but \u2026 there are still cities and towns that haven\u2019t received donations, that haven\u2019t received all of the help they really need.\u201d
\n\"MenLocal organizations, businesses and volunteers collected boxes of food, diapers and other supplies for people affected by the 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Colombia during a donation drive at Amigo\u2019s Colombian Bakery in Northeast Philadelphia on Saturday, August 15, 2026. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

The need for support will continue as the country rebuilds and as Colombians at home and abroad cope with the emotional toll of the disaster.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time, joining forces to support the Colombian people is what is most needed,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colombia\u2019s earthquake recovery will be \u2018a long-distance race\u2019 As of 10 a.m. Saturday, the drive had already collected…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1003074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,44517,1448,2830,1311,105264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1003073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-earthquake","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philly-suburbs","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117101465396355072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}