Support Pijao Families After Earthquake and Fires
0% complete
$535 raised of $25K
9 donations
On August 10, 2026, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook the coffee mountains of Quindío, Colombia. The next day, fires swept through the hills around the small town of Pijao. In 48 hours, 78 families lost the basics: a roof, light, and a safe way home.
We're a group of Colombians and friends in Portland, Oregon. This page is our way of getting help straight to the people who are actually doing the work on the ground, a small, nine-year-old organization that knows these families by name.
Who your gift reaches
43 Embera Chamí families of the Ibanacuara Indigenous reserve, high on the mountain. Their roofs are gone, they have no electricity, and the ridge trail that is their only way home is collapsing, children and teenagers walk it every day.
35 campesino (small-farmer) families in La Maizena and neighboring hamlets who lost their homes to the fires; 31 of them are in critical condition right now.
Who is doing the work
Corporación Espejo de Agua is a Colombian-registered nonprofit (NIT 900.998.127-4) that has worked in Pijao for more than nine years, running education, health, and arts programs with these same communities. It is led by Patricia Ruiz Tatis, an arts educator and therapist. Because the trust already exists, they can move fast and with the families, not just for them.
Their plan is called Techo, Camino y Semilla — Roof, Road, and Seed. Nine months, three overlapping phases:
- Roof and shelter (month 1). A house-by-house census with reserve and village leaders — the backbone of everything, and the first act of listening. Roofing sheets, tarps, blankets, and hygiene kits; solar lamps for families with no light; psychological first aid, starting day one.
- Rebuild in minga (months 2–5). Community work crews — neighbors, volunteers, and paid local labor — rebuild the reserve's roofs and the 35 farm homes with materials bought from regional suppliers, so every dollar also restarts the local economy. The access ridge gets drainage and retaining works. A community solar panel and rechargeable batteries go up in the reserve.
- Heal and sow (months 5–9). Group and individual therapy, theater and healing stories for kids, workshops on cooking and prevention, and the recovery of family gardens and seeds — so that the recovery outlasts the project.
Where your money goes — the whole trail
Your donation → GoFundMe (2.9% + $0.30 processing fee) → Yemaya, AHO! Wellness Tech, Portland → wire to organization Espejo de Agua's account in Colombia within 5 business days → materials and work delivered in Pijao, each closed with a delivery record signed by community leaders → weekly public report at espejodeagua.org.
We will post every withdrawal and every wire receipt here as an update. Espejo de Agua caps coordination, administration, and reporting at 10% of the budget.
Everything else is roofs, road, light, therapy, and seeds.
What your gift does
$25 — a solar lamp for a family with no electricity
$60 — a shelter kit: tarps, blankets, hygiene kit for one family
$150 — 13.5 m² of zinc roofing, installed
$300 — one week of paid local labor on a minga crew
$500 — a family home rebuilt in bahareque, materials only
Why give this way
Large disaster appeals move slowly and lose a lot in transit. We are piloting something simpler: money from friends in the US goes directly to a small organization rooted in the place, with a public trail from your card to a signed delivery record in the mountains. If it works, and we'll show you whether it does, we'll use the same model for the next community, next time.
Who we are
Yemaya — CEO of AHO! Wellness Tech, Portland. Colombian, who owns a farm in Pijao. Organizing on behalf of the AHO! team and Portland's Colombian community. Withdrawals from this page are wired to organization Espejo de Agua (Pijao, Colombia); every receipt is posted as an update.
