‘Will I die of hunger, or will I die of COVID-19?’ KU student works to feed her people

For her spring break from the University of Kansas, Camila Ordóñez Vargas traveled to her home country, Colombia, unaware she couldn’t return.

In Lawrence and across the U.S., the coronavirus shut down campus, and students had to switch to online classes.

But Ordóñez is using the unexpected time at home to launch a campaign to donate food to Colombians hurt by COVID-19.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about the people in general,” Ordóñez said via Skype recently from her home. “That has always been my driving force.”

Ordóñez, who was in her junior year studying economics and political science, arrived in her hometown, Barranquilla, on March 5 — the day before the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Colombia. She hasn’t left her home since March 24, the day the national quarantine started.

She planned to work on her senior thesis on food security and education, but when she saw the pandemic strike Colombians, she took her work in another direction and started the campaign Amor X Locombia (Love for Colombia).

“The way that she was able to use the fact that she was unexpectedly home to do some good, I was really very impressed by that,” said David Slusky, a professor of economics at KU and Ordóñez’s thesis adviser.

The campaign started with a music video, remaking the Colombian song “Odio X Amor” (Love for Hate). The video featured more than 20 Colombians, including Ordóñez’s high school friends, current students at the school and singers from Barranquilla, delivering a song with the message, “It’s time to change.”

She posted it on YouTube on April 2 and the donations started coming in.

So far, Amor X Locombia has donated about 1,000 food baskets, meals and snacks.

Colombia, a country of about 50 million people, has more than 39,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the fifth highest in South America, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Ordóñez said that in the country’s informal economy, many Colombians work as delivery drivers or fruit vendors. With the country extending its quarantine until July 1, those people can’t make money when they can’t even go outside.

“It’s really a difficult situation because many people say, this is an awful analogy, but it’s really, ‘Will I die of hunger, or will I die of COVID-19?’ It has come to an extent that people are starving,” Ordóñez said. “People cannot make their ends meet.”

Ordóñez uses 100% of the campaign’s proceeds to donate meals, snacks and food baskets to assisted living centers, parishes and low-income families. A food basket contains enough to last a week and a half for a family of three to four.

Ordóñez learned about nonprofit work with several previous volunteer positions. In high school, she volunteered with Rotary International, where she helped serve low-income communities. She also volunteered with the Red Cross.

At KU, she serves on Student Senate. She is also the director of outreach for the entrepreneurship club, the outreach coordinator at the Dole Institute of Politics, a group tutor and a peer mentor.

Ordóñez works with volunteers who deliver the food to neighborhoods in Barranquilla and other regions in Colombia.

To bring in more money, Ordóñez started a fashion collection, called Locombia X Nuestra Gente (Colombia for Our People).

For now, the collection is three T-shirts, costing $17 each and available through its Instagram. Each shirt highlights a story of Colombian culture.

One features three well-known characters in her hometown: an avocado seller, a fruit seller, and a snow cone vendor.

“You would see them without noticing because it’s so normal, but it’s so normal to Colombian culture,” Ordóñez said. “These are the people that are suffering significantly right now.”

Another shirt features a dolphin, which, like Colombia’s national dance, “Cumbia,” represents an “intelligent, altruistic and fun spirit.” The third features the words “Locombia” on top of “Colombia.”

The name Amor X Locombia, Ordóñez said, represents what Colombia can become. By inverting “Colombia,” she said she wants to “reinvent what Colombia means in the best way possible.”

“I want people to get to know and understand that Colombians are people that work for today in order to achieve a better tomorrow.”

Amor X Locombia functions simply as a campaign now, but Ordóñez said she is working to establish it as a registered nonprofit. She said she hopes to also work with sponsors in the future to establish a more stable income for the organization.

Colombians can visit Amor X Locombia’s Instagram page for details on how to donate using bank transfers.

U.S. residents can donate through Venmo (@amorxlocombia) or Zelle (amorxlocombia@gmail.com). More information is available on the Amor X Locombia Facebook page.

Although only a few U.S. residents have donated so far, Ordóñez said the donations go a long way with the exchange rate.

“One U.S. dollar equals one lunch,” Ordóñez said. “Eight U.S. dollars equals one entire food basket.”

Ordóñez plans to return to Lawrence in the fall to complete her senior year.

This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.