VERO BEACH, Fla. — A Vero Beach non-profit organization has collected more than 100 boxes of supplies for Venezuela earthquake relief. Now they need the community's help getting them there.
Latinas Nexus Network is working with Global Empowerment Mission in Miami to deliver crucial supplies to Venezuela, which is recovering from a 7.5-magnitude earthquake.
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"We have been doing this since Friday afternoon," Lourana Navarro, founder of Latinas Nexus Network, said.
The response from the community exceeded expectations.
"It fills our hearts. It's unimaginable," Juliana Marino, co-founder of Latinas Nexus Network, said. "The community has come together. They all came forward and brought something."
The boxes are packed with everything from diapers to medical supplies. The volume of donations, however, is more than the organization can transport on its own.
"We thought we were just going to put everything in our cars and we were going to drive to Miami," Marino said. "And there's no more room."
The organization is now urgently calling on the community to donate the use of a box truck to move the supplies south.
"We are urging the community to help us. We need a box truck—12 to 16 feet," Navarro said.
The cause is personal for Navarro, who was born in Venezuela and has family near the epicenter of the earthquake.
"It really kills me to see thousands—hundreds of thousands of people in the streets," Navarro said.
It's why she and Marino are doing everything they can to help. The effort is a job the women say they can't finish without the community's support.
"We put it together, now we need to deliver," Marino said.
Organizers say they need a box truck no later than Thursday to load it up and deliver the supplies to Global Empowerment Mission in Miami on Friday.
Anyone who can help their mission is asked to contact Navarro at (954) 205-0700 or Marino at (772) 913-0805.
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