Weeks after the earthquakes that struck Venezuela on 24 June, thousands of affected families continue to face the consequences of displacement, damaged homes and disrupted access to essential services. As the emergency moves into a new phase, Alliance2015 members are expanding assistance on the ground, providing emergency relief while adapting their response to the evolving needs of communities.
With families still living in temporary shelters and exposed to difficult conditions, including heavy rains, extreme heat and limited access to basic supplies, humanitarian teams are continuing to deliver support while preparing additional interventions to help communities recover.
Expanding assistance in affected communities
As lead organisation of the Alliance2015 response, Acted continues coordinating with partners to support affected households and ensure assistance is aligned with the most urgent needs identified in the field. Teams remain engaged in assessing the situation and preparing further emergency distributions, including shelter kits, hygiene supplies and food assistance for families who have lost their homes or access to essential services.
Through the collective Alliance2015 response, Acted is working alongside Alliance2015 members to strengthen the delivery of humanitarian assistance and support communities as the crisis continues to unfold.
Ayuda en Acción reaches families in La Guaira and expands psychosocial support
Ayuda en Acción is reinforcing its response through a localised, community-by-community approach, drawing on its long-standing presence in Venezuela since 2019, its local team and a consolidated network of community and humanitarian partners. This proximity allows the organisation to identify needs directly with affected households, adapt quickly as the situation evolves and prioritise families facing the greatest vulnerability.
On 18 July, Ayuda en Acción carried out a third Alliance2015-funded distribution in Naiguatá, reaching 112 families —427 people— in Calle El Mamón, Refugio CEIS and Playa Verde. Families received hygiene kits and/or essential household items, complementing assistance already provided by other humanitarian actors in food and access to water.
The distribution built on Ayuda en Acción’s previous emergency assistance and was organised through close coordination with local partners and Alliance2015 members, helping reduce duplication and ensuring that support was directed to gaps still identified in shelters and affected communities.
Since the start of the emergency, Ayuda en Acción has supported 2,563 people through its response in Venezuela. Its assistance combines immediate relief —including food, hygiene, shelter and basic household items— with ongoing needs assessments, household identification and accountability mechanisms so that future distributions can be adjusted to what communities actually need.
Ayuda en Acción is also preparing water, sanitation and hygiene interventions for the emergency phase and early recovery, informed by technical exchange with its Ecuador team and adapted to the Venezuelan context. The next step is participatory community mapping and assessment to identify appropriate solutions, with a clear do-no-harm approach: in many communities, access to water usually depends on purchase, with livelihoods already linked to this service. Beyond Venezuela, the organisation is also providing remote psychosocial support to Venezuelan migrants in countries such as Colombia, Ecuador and Peru who are worried about relatives affected by the earthquakes, working through community-based organisations and local women leaders.
CESVI scales up shelter and emergency assistance
CESVI continues supporting families who remain displaced and are facing increasingly difficult living conditions without safe shelter. For many households, temporary accommodation means continued exposure to extreme temperatures, rainfall and other risks that can worsen health and protection concerns, particularly for children, older people and people with disabilities.
Together with Plan International, CESVI reached 718 people in the past week, including 276 children and adolescents and 36 people with disabilities. The assistance provided included shelter kits, 151 hygiene kits and 151 food kits to help families cope with the immediate effects of displacement.
In the coming days, CESVI plans to distribute an additional 2,448 emergency kits, including hygiene supplies, dignity kits, food assistance and items to support community kitchens.
Alongside material assistance, CESVI continues integrating protection measures and psychosocial support into its response, helping vulnerable families cope with the impact of displacement, loss and uncertainty.
A continued collective response
Alongside the operational response by the members that were already present in Venezuela, other Alliance2015 members have mobilized resources too.
Welthungerhilfe (WHH) has committed €200,000 in emergency funding to support humanitarian operations in Venezuela. The contribution is helping strengthen the joint Alliance2015 response, enabling partners to continue delivering essential assistance, including food, hygiene kits and emergency shelter materials to affected communities.
Concern has mobilsed 450,000 euro of donor and public funds for the response in addition to stocks donated from the Irish Government. These resources as being channeled to Acted and CESVI.
Helvetas has deployed a Senior Roving Humanitarian Expert on July 7th to manage the earthquake response and on the 16th of July a national Liaison Coordinator was hired in Caracas. Their current intervention is co-funded by Swiss Solidarity: it is targeting approximately 700 households, or 3500 individuals. This action is led by Helvetas, as the SWS-accredited organisation, and implemented by Acted together with the Venezuelan civil society organisation Otro Enfoque. This first response comprises of distribution of food baskets, family hygiene kits, female dignity kits, baby kits, emergency shelter kits and household water purification kits. Protection and accountability are of course mainstreamed across all activities, guaranteeing safe and dignified distributions. Site-level shelter and WASH support include water trucking, water storage, handwashing points.
So far, the key achievements to date include 375 families registered and verified with support from Otro Enfoque and community leaders, 375 family hygiene kits and 375 female dignity kits delivered, coverage in 4 sites (OPP 58, OPP 49, OPP 09, and CEIS Naiguatá), and 3 sites identified for minor WASH repairs. This rapid response project will be implemented until the end of August.
Helvetas is also currently working on developing a second phase of the earthquake response that will focus on WASH and early recovery. The WASH project will attend affected isolated communities in order to reestablish water services as well as repair water and sanitation systems in some damaged schools. The second initiative will be an early recovery project centered around the debris and rubble value chain to assist with the proper management of the waste and to recycle as much as possible the recovered materials, and at the same time provide labour opportunities to the affected population who has lost their livelihood due to the earthquake.
PIN has worked in Venezuela for more than 12 years through a network of local partner organisations. Building on these long-term relationships, PIN is activating Local Responders Fund — a rapid funding mechanism that provides flexible support directly to local organisations, volunteer networks, and community groups. These local responders are often the first to reach affected communities after disasters, particularly in areas that remain difficult to access.
PIN also deployed an international team to Venezuela. The funding from the Czech Republic supports activities such as emergency food assistance, safe drinking water, emergency shelter, medicines and medical supplies, psychosocial support, equipment for volunteer rescue teams, and logistics enabling humanitarian coordination.
As affected communities face the longer-term consequences of the earthquakes, Alliance2015 members remain committed to supporting families through emergency assistance and early recovery efforts. The response continues to focus on restoring dignity, improving living conditions and ensuring that vulnerable groups, including children, people with disabilities and families who have lost their homes, receive the support they need.
Working together with local organisations, communities and humanitarian partners, Alliance2015 members will continue adapting their interventions as needs evolve, supporting affected Venezuelan communities during the recovery process.
Article by Marina Losilla Jiménez
Photos by Ayuda en Acción, CESVI and WeltHungerHilfe
