Projects · In development · seeking funding
Colombia Earthquake Response
Colombia · Cali and the smaller towns and villages around it · Household aid to families the response has not reached
What this is
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Colombia's Pacific region on 10 August 2026. The damage runs across whole departments rather than one or two cities, which is what has made the response hard to organize. Cali is the staging point for everything, because it has the international airport and the logistics capacity. Outside the cities are smaller and poorer towns and villages that were reached last, and some went weeks before anyone confirmed how they had fared.
This project funds one deployment. I travel to Colombia, work through a Colombian organization already present in these communities, source and price the need with vendors on the ground, buy locally, deliver, and report back with full reconciliation. What is bought is decided on the ground, against confirmed local pricing and against what these specific households are short of.
Why now
Large organizations are working the cities, which is what they are built for and where the largest numbers are. The smaller towns and villages outside them are a different problem: a few dozen households at a time, far enough out to be served last, where what one community needs is not what the next one needs. Aid specified from a distance does not land, and delivering against that reality costs more per household than an institutional structure is built to carry.
The second constraint is timing. The cities have moved on to reconstruction while household basics are still not covered, and the giving that covered them in the first weeks has stopped.
How this runs
Partner
Work with local organizations and people already operating in these communities.
Match
Aid sized to the household rather than the average. What one family is missing is a bed, the next a rebuilt door.
Procure
Buy locally in Cali and the regional centers. Colombian supply is functioning and the spend stays in the local economy.
Deliver
Move the goods out to the communities and confirm they reach the families they were bought for.
Report
Photo and video documentation, and full budget reconciliation against receipts.