Guillermo Uzcanga does not expect anyone to pay him. In his workshop in Maracay, Venezuela, this carpenter has given away a total of nearly 336 coffins to families left devastated after the earthquakes, which have already claimed 4.490 lives, injured 16.740 people, and seen 6.462 rescued.
With a team of volunteers, Uzcanga can assemble up to 40 coffins per day, but only if the electricity does not fail, something that is not guaranteed in Venezuela even amid a national tragedy. Every piece that leaves his workshop is free for whoever needs it, while the entire country counts its dead.
Now he is asking for something simple: donations of wood and materials to keep making them. No one should have to beg for boards to bury their dead while the official figures continue to rise. Uzcanga does it because someone has to do it — the question is why it has to be him.