Venezuela Earthquakes: Children Need Your Help
Two powerful earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude have struck central Venezuela, causing widespread destruction and forcing children and families from their homes. The earthquakes struck during the evening when many people were returning home, leaving communities devastated.
Save the Children and our local partners began responding within 24 hours of the earthquakes and are working in affected communities to deliver lifesaving support. Our response includes helping children access safe shelter, clean water, food, healthcare, child protection and psychosocial support.
An estimated 1.8 million people—including 680,000 children—now need humanitarian assistance following the earthquakes.
Children urgently need shelter, food, clean water, healthcare and protection. While search and rescue efforts continue, families remain displaced and many are still sleeping outside because they're too afraid to return home.
Your donation today can help children receive lifesaving support when they need it most.
Save the Children is responding urgently with our local partners to support children and families affected by the earthquake.
How Save the Children Is Responding to the Venezuela Earthquakes
Save the Children has worked with local partners in Venezuela since 2018, giving us the experience and local presence to respond quickly when disasters strike.
Children are among the most vulnerable after these earthquakes. Many have lost their homes, while aftershocks continue to force families to remain outside. They urgently need shelter, food, clean water, healthcare and protection.
Save the Children and our local partners began responding within 24 hours of the earthquakes and continue to deliver lifesaving support to children and families in the hardest-hit communities.
WHY DONATE TO THE CHILDREN'S EMERGENCY FUND?
Our Children's Emergency Fund is a central pot of funding for emergencies. It gives us the flexibility to respond quickly and wherever the need is greatest.
With every year that goes by, crises become more frequent, last longer and affect more people. There are now twice as many natural disasters as there were 20 years ago.
The needs are huge, but so is our determination to reach every last child in crisis. We have the experience to limit the effects of disasters on children's lives – and our Children's Emergency Fund is the key to unlocking this expertise.
Thanks to your support, we've helped millions of children in their darkest hour.
Children can't wait.
Give now to Save the Children’s Emergency Fund to help deliver urgent, life‑saving support to children.
Venezuela Earthquakes: What You Need to Know
What's happened?
As of 7th July, more than 3,342 people have reportedly died, over 16,950 have been injured, and some 17,300 people have lost their homes.
The earthquakes struck during the evening when many people were returning home, causing extensive damage to homes, schools and other essential infrastructure. Hundreds of buildings have collapsed, while power outages and disrupted communications continue to make it difficult to assess the full extent of the damage.
Many families have been displaced and are sheltering in open spaces, afraid to return to damaged buildings. A lack of adequate shelter, clean water and exposure to the elements including heavy downpours are creating a second emergency. Families are sleeping outdoors or in informal settlements and exposed to new health risks.
Hospitals have been damaged and are strained with the thousands of injuries they are trying to treat.
How have children been impacted?
Children are among the most vulnerable following the earthquakes. Many have lost their homes, while others may have been separated from their families in the chaos, placing them at greater risk of exploitation and abuse.
An estimated 1.8 million people — including 680,000 children — now need humanitarian assistance following the earthquakes.
Children urgently need access to safe shelter, food, clean water, healthcare and protection. Beyond the physical destruction, many are experiencing fear and emotional distress after losing loved ones, homes and their sense of safety.
Many children are developing respiratory infections due to sleeping outdoors in the rain without adequate shelter or on damp mattresses. Many people are also cramped into tents that are too small for their families, which is also worsening the spread of infections among children, including infants.
With schools damaged or being used as emergency shelters, many children's education has also been disrupted.
What is Save the Children doing?
Save the Children and our local partners began responding within 24 hours of the earthquakes, releasing $2.5 million from the Children's Emergency Fund to kick-start our emergency response.
Together with our local partners, we are providing healthcare, shelter, food, safe water, child protection and psychosocial support to children and families affected by the earthquakes. We aim to reach 350,000 people, including 200,000 children.
Together with our local partners, we are helping children and families access emergency food, safe drinking water, healthcare, child protection services, psychosocial support and essential relief items, while creating safe spaces where children can begin to recover.
We are also deploying additional technical and operational staff to scale up the response, including members of our Emergency Health Unit — a specialised team of healthcare and crisis specialists that are ready to respond anywhere, anytime to the world’s worst emergencies.
We have established three Child-Friendly Spaces — two in La Guaira and one in Caracas — where children can take part in safe, structured recreational and learning activities, receive psychosocial support and regain a sense of normality. The spaces are attended by children of all ages, but mostly children aged from six to nine.
