The earthquakes recorded in Venezuela, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale – the strongest the country has experienced in over a century – have triggered an emergency response from Christian organisations operating in the country.

The images emerging are heart-wrenching and the true extent of the damage remains unknown, although many families are already in a situation of extreme vulnerability.

The official figures as of Friday 26 June, spoke of 589 deaths and around 3,000 injured.

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The Venezuelan government has declared a state of emergency and has suspended school classes and non-essential activities.

Several countries in South and North America are sending first aid teams.

Eyewitness accounts from the ground

The impact of the earthquake has been felt particularly strongly in Caracas. María Andreína Pernalete, communications director for World Vision in Venezuela, experienced the earthquake alongside her two-year-old baby, her mother and her husband in the Caracas neighbourhood of Sebucán, one of the worst-affected areas.

“We were deeply shaken and frightened,” she recounts. After taking shelter under a column whilst the walls of their building were being damaged, her family had to move to a nearby convent, where the nuns are also taking in other displaced families.

Luis Colmenarez, World Vision’s regional specialist in Emergency Communications, was in a cinema with his younger sisters when the tremor began. “Everything went dark and everything started shaking. People started running, screaming and crying. The children were also screaming in fear”, he describes.

The earthquake lasted between two and three minutes. “It seemed endless”, he adds. Colmenarez reported from the ground that buildings had collapsed and hospitals were overwhelmed, with patients being treated in the street.

World Vision has mobilised its emergency team to assess the impact in the areas where it operates, prioritising the situation of children, their safety and protection, access to safe shelter and drinking water, and psychosocial support.

Alianza Solidaria and GAiN response 

Alianza Solidaria, the humanitarian aid organisation of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE), has also launched a fundraising campaign to assist those affected. In its statement to AEE members, it recalls its commitment to international aid dating back to 1921.

Venezuela is a country that Alianza Solidaria knows well. During the country’s most difficult years, when restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid prevented many organisations from operating normally, they maintained a presence through their networks in Colombia and their links with churches within the country, supporting food and support projects in cities such as Maracaibo and Caracas.

“Together we can provide local aid that responds to the urgency of the situation and gives them hope”, says Francisca Capa, president of Alianza Solidaria, in a call for support and prayer for the victims.

The disaster in Venezuela found the team of another Christian organisation, Global Aid International Network (GAiN) – which specialises in first response to natural disasters – working on the ground in the Philippines. But “in Venezuela, we are already in contact with potential local partners to join forces,” explains Pau Abad, director in Spain.

“We want our aid to focus on meeting real needs and for our involvement to make a difference to the people we are helping. That is why the first step, just as we did in the Philippines, is to send a team to the ground to assess the actual situation whilst we are already taking part in the initial aid distributions.