When two powerful earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck north-central Venezuela on Wednesday, June 24, they caused devastating and widespread damage across Caracas, La Guaira, Carabobo, Aragua, and surrounding areas. By Friday, June 26, the death toll in Venezuela had risen to 920 and at least 3,360 people were listed as injured. On Friday afternoon, a website set up to take reports of people still unaccounted for stated that more than 71,000 people had been reported missing. Here are the most effective ways to help Venezuela earthquake survivors, including donating to trusted disaster relief organizations, supporting emergency response efforts, and volunteering your time and skills.
The Best Way to Help Venezuela Earthquake Survivors Is Through Monetary Donations
Giving funds directly to the nonprofits that serve survivors ensures they can do the work needed and purchase the equipment and supplies needed at the moment they are needed in Venezuela.
Identifying reputable nonprofits to donate to that will best help Venezuela earthquake survivors can be tricky. To ensure your donation is effective and avoids fraudulent fundraising campaigns, look to make sure the nonprofit has a history of working on international earthquake response, and if it is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
As of Friday, June 26, several nongovernmental organizations and aid agencies are on the ground or headed to Venezuela, including Team Rubicon, which is in the process of sending a medical advance team to the country, Catholic Relief Services, the International Medical Corps, Samaritan’s Purse, the Venezuelan Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen. Nearly two dozen search and rescue teams are also on the ground or headed to Venezuela to help rescue and serve survivors.
To Help Earthquake Survivors, Choose Financial Donations Over Goods
View the scenes of complete devastation from afar after a disaster like the back-to-back earthquakes that struck Venezuela, and it feels as if giving anything could help. But in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, responders need to be able to provide survivors with what they truly need, in the moment, not what most of us assume they need.
This is why most nonprofits and disaster relief organizations maintain an unrestricted fund. Unrestricted funds provide nonprofits the financial flexibility they need to cover operational expenses and respond to emerging challenges. (At Team Rubicon, we call it the Ready Reserve Fund.) Because it is not tied to a specific event or crisis, unrestricted funding is the single-most effective way to give: it allows nonprofits to purchase what they—and the survivors—actually need in the moment, even as the situation and resources change.
If You Do Donate Goods to Venezuela Earthquake Survivors, Donate New Items
At their best, in-kind donations—goods and services donated in lieu of money—provide a community with supplies that couldn’t be acquired otherwise, and help nonprofits stretch their donor dollars. At their worst, these donations overwhelm a community with items that can’t be used or, in the case of food donations, go to rot. The challenge with unsolicited donated goods is often that what may be essential in the moments after a disaster can become useless days later.
In addition to being expensive to ship and sort, certain donations, like clothing, may not even be appropriate for the situation or environment. And used items hold far less value for survivors than new. It’s not that donating physical items is forbidden, it’s simply essential that those doing the giving are strategic: Send fresh new socks, not what was sitting on the shelf.
In Venezuela, Blankets, Tents, and Flashlights Will Beat Toys, Food, and Water
It may seem obvious that food and water will be needed, but donated food may spoil before arriving in the disaster zone, and pallets of water are bulky, heavy, and take up space that could be better used for other things.
Because the Venezuela earthquakes destroyed at least 250 buildings and left nearly 3,000 families homeless, shelter is currently one of the greatest needs. While the best choice is to donate funds to nonprofits that can purchase supplies and stand up shelters, those who feel they must send in-kind gifts should donate new blankets, tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, and over-the-counter medication for flu, colds, and pain.
Donate Airline Miles to Send Relief Workers to Venezuela
As disaster response organizations in the U.S. begin ramping up operations, they’ll increasingly rely on organizations such as Airlink to get them to Venezuela. Those with miles to spare on American, Southwest, or Alaska can gift them to Airlink to help put responders in disaster zones.
United Airlines members can deploy their miles for good directly for Team Rubicon’s use getting to disaster zones through the airline’s Miles on a Mission program.
Volunteer for Disaster Relief to Serve Earthquake Survivors
In the days and weeks after a major disaster, the most effective way to help Venezuela earthquake survivors is to support experienced disaster relief organizations with financial donations or volunteer service.
Joining an aid organization and volunteering for disaster relief allows anyone to provide logistical, medical, or other kinds of support to survivors. Anyone who wants to respond to disasters domestically or serve as a humanitarian aid worker is encouraged to sign up to volunteer with Team Rubicon, now.
