Santa Catarina is the name of a state in the South of Brazil known by its gorgeous beaches and home of many German immigrants who arrived there about a hundred and fifty years ago. Now imagine you live in Santa Catarina, next to a hill, in a scenario that brings up the picture of an European village. You have worked all your life to build a nice and comfortable home, perhaps with a piano inside, where you live with your family. You are happy. You and your wife have a small business, employing 30 people and producing, say, canned food. People like that have just become homeless after massive amounts of rain caused flood and landslides, as never seen before:
116 people are dead; 31 are disappeared; 27.410 are homeless and 51.297 had to temporarily leave their homes, partly destroyed by the disaster. Many of them won’t be able to go back, since the sites have been considered too risky, subjected to further landslides.
Check here (NYT) and here (Portuguese website, with pictures). And, of course, you can help, if you want:
Donate here: money, food, cleaning products, clothing, blankets, drinking water.
