“Mom, is this the end of the world?”

For years, Raquel ran a food business to help her husband provide for their 3 children, explaining, “I have been selling corn, esquites and fried plantains for about ten years now.  Everyone here knows me.”

Then, in the middle of the night, a Category 5 hurricane struck the city where they live in Mexico. According to 7-year-old Edwin, they were all terrified, recalling, “I heard the roof fly away and that scared me. There was water all around us.” Raquel adds, “They were crying when all this happened, they said ‘mom, is this the end of the world?’ I said ‘no’, we are going to make it through this.”

When dawn broke, they discovered the true magnitude of the disaster. Raquel described the aftermath, “Everything for my business was gone. The oven where I cook, my pot. The water took everything.”

Today, a hand truck that survived has a new purpose. Raquel explains, “Food is our most urgent now, beans, rice. When I heard different people were giving food away, I ran to get some.”

That’s where she met the team from Operation Blessing. We gave Raquel food and clean water for her family. She invited us to see what was left of their house and business, sharing, “Right now I have no business, we have nothing. But I will keep the fighting for my children to be better.”

That’s when supporters of Operation Blessing helped again.  We provided Raquel everything needed—a new pot, utensils, and raw materials to get her business up and running again. Raquel declares, “Tomorrow I'm going to start selling corn, God willing! I will get up early, boil the corn and prepare the food to sell, because my former clients were already asking when are you going to sell again? “I thank you all for what you have done.” Raquel’s son Edwin, shares, “Thank you for helping us.  Now mom is able to work again!”