Please help my sister get back on her feet - Brazil floods

Hi, my name is Luana. I live in Australia and I am setting this page up to try and raise funds to support my sister. Her name is Leticia, she lives in Porto Alegre, State of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil. That is our home town.

I am not sure if the news reached Australia, but our State is currently under water. About 10 days ago, heavy rains caused unprecedented floods all over the State. It is still raining. The State has 497 cities and towns, and 447 have been impacted. more than 600.000 people had to leave their homes. The numbers are shocking. My sister and her partner are 2 of those people. They are safe, that was my main concern being so far away. My dad also lives in the State, but up in the hills and, although they are kind of cut off because of ongoing fear of landslides, he is safe and in his home.

I kept thinking, how can I help?? I pretty much emptied my bank account and paid for an Air Bnb for them for the next 3 weeks. And I am putting this Go Fund Me together to see if my Aussie friends can contribute. Any amount helps - with the currency exchange, AU$30 turns into about $100 Brazilian Reais, so it feels like even a small contribution can stretch further.

The situation is absolutely dire; I don't even think I can comprehend. The picture I put up here is from her apartment complex. Her little flat was on the ground floor and it is still under water - shoulder high under water. Leticia hasn't been able to go back there yet, but it is fair to imagine she lost pretty much everything. There is no insurance. The strata company says they will try and fight for some compensation, but the buildings are only insured against fires.

Sadly, I think there are a lot of Australians that know what these all means and the re-build in the aftermath, way better than I can even picture. I'm gobsmacked. I don't even think I ever used this word before... I chose this goal amount, but any amount raised will help. Initially, funds will help secure accommodation while she can't be in her apartment. Then there is the actual apartment; flooring, cabinetry, wall cleaning and painting... oh god! Appliances, furniture, clothing...

Her partner lost his job just a few weeks ago. Leticia is a flight attendant, and the airport is under water; she hears it will take months for it to be functional again. Until then, they are still not sure how the company will be able to help and maintain all its impacted workers. The government pledged to help with funds for re-build, but it is still not clear when and how this will occur. The reports of what's been happening in the refuges, housing thousands of people, would need a trigger warning here.

So, yeah... please help if you can. I feel ambivalent about asking for help when there are so many awful things happening in the world at the moment, so many people in even more catastrophic situations, and so many of us struggling with the 'current' cost-of-living crisis. Hell, there is part of me that wants to pull the blinkers and go walk the Camino de Santiago. That was the plan, you know: My sis and my dad were coming to visit me and my son, and afterwards I'd go to walk the Camino...

I'll stop here before all these emotions get the better of me. Please help with a donation if you can. If you cant, please share this with your friends or on 'your feed' to reach a few more people.

Thanks for reading.