I'm sure that by now, everyone knows about the devastating 8.8 earthquake that hit Concepcion, Chile on February 27th. As of today, close to 1000 people have been found dead and many more are hurt and lost their homes and jobs. There is a small village called Lirquen, which is on the coast about 20 miles from Concepcion. The earthquake hit Lirquen just as hard as anywhere else and there was much devastation. Up to today, Lirquen still has no electricity nor running water, grocery stores have been robbed, transportation is very limited, and people are resorting to sleeping outside of their fallen homes on rugs so they don't have to lay on the dirt. We get very comfortable here in the U.S. and it's very hard to imagine how hard a situation like this would be.
The earthquake measured an 8.0 200 miles away in Santiago at my beloved Diaz Cortez home and, luckily, the family and their home is safe. Their immediate family lives in Lirquen and has been terribly affected by this incident. I have been in much contact with Cristian, the oldest son (he's in his early 30's) to know about his Lirquen family. Cristian has reported to me that one of his family members' home is completely destroyed, while the other's is still in liveable conditions. They are a family of fishermen and they don't know when they will be able to work again, and even then, they won't be able to afford to fix damages and get by.
This photo is Cristian, he's a strong and caring person, truely considered a brother to me.
This next photo is the Cortez family in Lirquen just days before the earthquake.
Just as the Diaz Cortez family took me in as one of their own and took care of my needs while I was across the world from my family, I feel a strong impression to help them with what I can. I don't have much money to help them with, however, I feel that I do have a lot of friends that would be willing to pitch in whatever they can. I created this blog for the soul purpose of raising money for the Cortez family in Lirquen.
I give my word that 100% of everything donated will be sent to this family.
The Cortez family in Lirquen is a strong and faithful, LDS-church going family and could easily be trusted to use donated money where it is needed. I would rather give this money directly to them rather than to an organization that would use part of that money for transportation/provisions for their volunteers.
As I sit here in my safe Utah home I have a great motivation to help from my confidence that you will help in anyway you can. Whether you share $1 or $500, anything will greatly help.
Here's how you do it...
either click on the DONATE button at the top left of this page or... mail a check written out to me (Tim Claybaugh) to:
Doug Welch
PO Box 1731
Orem, UT 84059
Thank you Brandon and Doug for helping me out with this and Thank You to those of you who have come here to take the time to hear me out.
Please tell your friends and family about this site. If anyone has any questions please email me at timclaybaugh@gmail.com.
God Bless and VIVA CHILE!!!
