What was meant to be a routine handover of new apartments for earthquake victims in Cali, Colombia, turned into an emotional scene last Friday when two young girls slipped past security barriers to make a personal appeal to President Abelardo De La Espriella.
The event took place near the El Pueblo coliseum, not far from neighborhoods devastated by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck Cali and much of western and central Colombia on August 10. According to city officials, the quake killed 154 people and injured more than 1,500, with 148 still hospitalized. Forty-six buildings collapsed entirely, reshaping the city’s skyline.
During the ceremony, officials planned to award four apartments built by a private construction company to families who had lost everything, including a young woman who survived nearly 30 hours trapped in rubble and another who lost her parents, two sisters, and an uncle when her building collapsed.
But the formal proceedings were interrupted when one girl approached the stage and quietly asked whether her family could also receive a home, since her house had been destroyed. The president relayed her request to the crowd and spontaneously offered to personally cover half the cost of a new apartment for her mother, asking the audience whether they should make it happen.
Read the full story at El Tiempo to learn how the crowd responded and what happened next.
Image: dbking, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).