Its been a month since a massive 7.4 earthquake shook the Pacific coast of Colombia. The disaster took place three days after a new political party, opposed to the previous administration, took office. In situations like this, the strategies and priorities should be simple: help those in need. Unfortunately politics get in the way of getting assistance to people who need it most.
To better understand what was happening on the ground, I invited Camilo Trujillo Arbeláez, better known as Cammigrant on Instagram, to talk about his crowdfunding initiative to support communities that, according to his reporting and firsthand experience, had yet to receive adequate assistance.
In our conversation, we discuss what happens when political and institutional realities affect the delivery of humanitarian aid, the challenges faced by organizations working in hard-to-reach areas, and why transparency matters when individuals use their platforms to raise money for disaster relief.
