SoCal Honduran Americans help home country struck by hurricanes
SoCal Honduran Americans are coming together to help their home country, which has recently been devastated by back-to-back hurricanes.
Angelenos banded together this week to help those in need more than 3,000 miles away in Central America.
"There is a lot of people on the street, they lost everything," described Leoncio Velasquez with United Hondurans of Los Angeles.
This race to help follows a one-two punch for the people of Honduras, where two recent storms unleashed a path of death and destruction.
Victor Cruz is a SoCal bank manager who is in Honduras offering aide to his home country.
"It's pretty hard to see kids without homes and parents having a house and somewhere to live where now they're pretty much homeless at this time," he said.
He's not the only Honduran-American from Southern California joining in the international effort.
MORE: At least 26 dead in Central America from powerful Hurricane Iota
"We want to get involved and be able to help bring essential goods as well as food, medicine, formula, diapers to the community that's in need right now," said Yesenia Garcia, CEO of Diosa Leon.
Garcia, a Honduran American fashion-brand owner in Long Beach, the disaster has been made even more personal.
"Our mother traveled to Honduras just before the hurricane hit, hurricane Eta, and she's now just stuck there and seeing the devastation that hurricane Eta and Iota are bringing," she said.
She and her sister have organized a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $10,000 to send goods to help.
They feel fortunate their loved ones are alive.
"The losses our family has personally experienced are material but a lot of these villagers live in poverty already so in the middle of a global pandemic, not just one but two catastrophic hurricanes, it's going to be a really uphill battle," she said.
But together, they're getting it done.
"We are Hondurenos, we don't give up," said Cruz. "It's just us coming together as human beings and helping the next person who needs help."
