Last week, I traveled to Hawaii to meet with flood survivors and help share their stories on my @makebigtalk Instagram page.

Disaster relief storytelling is one of the most impactful series I’ve had the honor of producing for Big Talk. Similar to my work during the LA fires, Hurricane Helene, and the Texas floods, in Hawaii, I focused on storytelling that puts a human face to disaster—amplifying families’ GoFundme pages and helping their voices reach further.

A quiet interview in front of someone’s destroyed home can lead to millions of views online and tens of thousands of dollars in donations to help them rebuild.

Here are a few of the people I had the honor of meeting last week:
• Vao, a pig farmer who lost 2 of her 20 rescue dogs in the floods. Her video interview has now been viewed over 2 million times since I posted it last week.
• Kalei, a world-renowned ukulele player who helped rescue people living on his property
• Soriah, a mother of seven whose children escaped by climbing onto their truck as the water rapidly rose
• Aunty Sela, an 85 year old matriarch and staple in her Laie community.
• Uncle Wendell, who helped save many people at Otake camp. Hawaiian Airlines messaged me after seeing his video and wants to help send him to Japan!

These are just a few of the many stories from the island—each one a reminder of love, loss, hope, and resilience.

You can watch their stories here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWn0NzBkt4v/

You can donate to them on my GoFundMe profile here, where my @makebigtalk storytelling has helped inspire over 37,000 people to donate over $2.5 million to people in need: https://lnkd.in/gjtSCEN4

Thank you to Megan Batson for capturing the film photos from the shoot, and to Direct Relief and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai’i for the great work you do providing relief on the ground to people in need. And Morgan OConnor and Shannon Hickerson for helping to coordinate and amplify!

-Kalina Silverman