Amanda Michelangeli says her family in Venezuela is "doing well" — despite ongoing protests against the president, a nation-wide food shortage and the country experiencing its worst-ever power outage last week.

The Leaside resident, who immigrated to Canada eight years ago, says she didn't hear from her cousins, aunts or uncles during the blackout since they didn't have power to charge their phones. But she says they have since been in touch to tell their relatives in Canada not to worry.

"Doing well in Venezuela means they have enough food to eat at least twice a day, which, in Venezuela, is already a lot," Michelangeli says. "But they're not living a normal life."

She says her relatives spend their days searching for food, medicine and clean water.

"That's basically the life of every Venezuelan right now," Michelangeli adds.

A handful of coffee shops across Toronto are collecting medicine and sanitary products for Venezuela. (Maggie Macintosh/CBC)

Michelangeli and her husband Daniel Ruiz have sent money to Venezuela before, but it wasn't until she learned about a humanitarian aid collection program for Venezuelans in Toronto that she decided to ask her neighbours if they would be willing to donate as well.

An 'overwhelming' number of donations

"I've just been watching my country basically implode from outside and I felt that I needed to do something," Michelangeli told CBC Toronto.

Venezolanos Por la Vida (Venezuelans for Life) has been collecting donations from Canadians and organizing shipments to Venezuela since 2016.

Most recently, the organization has partnered with cafés across Toronto to serve as collection sites for medicine, vitamins, first aid supplies, protein bars, baby formula, water purification tablets and personal hygiene items.

Michelangeli shared that list of items in a community Facebook group on Tuesday. The response, she says, was "overwhelming."

"I was expecting people to basically drop off a couple bars of soap at my place," she told CBC Toronto on Sunday afternoon, surrounded by a pile of boxes and bags of supplies.

Amanda Michelangeli's toddler, Amelia, helped her drop off donations. (Maggie Macintosh/CBC)

Less than a week after she made the post, she has collected everything from deodorant to nutritional drinks from more than 20 different people.

Discreet donations

The items will be collected and shipped both privately — and discreetly — to doctors who work at public hospitals in Venezuela and to Miami, where official humanitarian aid is being held since President Nicolas Maduro has barred it from entering the country.

Michelangeli says she hopes the Leaside donations will help at least a few malnourished babies and adults.

And she plans to continue collecting items since there are still dozens of others who have messaged her about donating that she wasn't able to meet this week.

"As Canadians here, we're very comfortable and we live a comfortable life and we can give a little bit to these people. Even a little bit goes a long way for them."