UNHCR helps families move beyond survival after Venezuela quakes
UNHCR helps families move beyond survival after Venezuela quakes
Gusmaira Rizo, 30, holds her newborn daughter alongside her husband and two of her older children at a transitional camp in César Nieves, La Guaira, Venezuela.
The earth began to shake just hours after Gusmaira Rizo had returned home from the hospital.
Two days earlier, she had given birth to her fifth child. The baby, a girl named Irena, had remained behind under medical observation. By the afternoon of 24 June, Gusmaira had finally been discharged following a caesarean section and returned home to rest with her family. Shortly afterwards, on a warm early evening just after 6 p.m., the earthquakes struck.
Still recovering from surgery, she ran with one of her daughters as the buildings around them trembled. The entire family survived and gathered outside, but her newborn was still in the hospital.
“We spent the whole night in anguish because we didn’t know what had happened to her,” Gusmaira recalled. “There was no phone signal, no way to know if she was safe.”
Across La Guaira state, which lies to the north of the capital Caracas, and additional affected areas, others were living through their own nightmare.
Yuleima Chivico was sitting in her living room speaking on the phone with her father when the alert sounded and she felt the first quake. Within moments, mirrors shattered, walls cracked and the building swayed.
She ran to her husband to wake him up. Their younger children screamed as the furniture crashed to the ground around them. Her eldest daughter, who is pregnant, was still staring out the window when they grabbed her to leave. But their apartment door was jammed shut, and they could not get out.
Outside, neighbours shouted that the buildings were collapsing. “The only thing you could hear were screams,” Yuleima says. “Everything was falling apart.” Then came the second quake and the shaking intensified.
Trapped inside as the building shook around them, every second seemed to stretch to eternity. Finally, they climbed out through a window.
One by one, her husband lifted their children and dog to safety. But when they looked back, entire apartment blocks had disappeared. “One moment you have your home, your life, everything,” Yuleima said. “Thirty seconds later, you have nothing.”
Yuleima, her husband, their two younger children and the family dog at the César Nieves transitional site where they found refuge after losing their home.
For thousands of families across Venezuela, life was divided into a before and an after.
Homes disappeared. Communities were transformed. Families spent nights sleeping outdoors, uncertain whether another earthquake would come.
Across Venezuela, the earthquakes left thousands of families displaced and nearly 18,000 people without shelter, according to Government figures, turning an already difficult humanitarian situation into an even greater challenge. Now, joint UN-Government assessments estimate that 1.3 million people are facing socioeconomic needs following the earthquakes.
Finding hope and refuge
Gusmaira, Yuleima and their families both found shelter in a nearby stadium, César Nieves, where the Government established one of over 80 ‘transitional camps’ – places where earthquake survivors could find shelter. Here, humanitarian organizations like UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have been delivering protection and other life-saving services to complement the government’s response.
Two weeks after the earthquakes, many families remain displaced, while they try to rebuild their lives. But for them, recovery is about more than having a roof over their head.
For Gusmaira, who returned to Venezuela after four years in Colombia, that includes resolving documentation issues affecting one of her children, born abroad. It means taking her children to medical appointments, speaking with psychologists, and gradually imagining what comes next.
In transitional sites like César Nieves, recovery begins with the small but essential steps that help families regain stability. As the Protection Cluster lead, UNHCR is supporting the government-led response by coordinating integrated protection services through one-stop service points alongside partners such as UNICEF and UNFPA. Here, families can access legal assistance, support to recover lost documentation, psychosocial care, child protection services and referrals to specialized support, helping them restore access to rights and essential services after the disaster.
UNHCR staff member Sabrina Suárez provides legal orientation to people affected by the earthquakes at César Nieves transitional site.
Beyond direct assistance, UNHCR is also supporting authorities to strengthen the collection and management of information on affected families, helping ensure that people with specific needs are identified and connected to services. At the same time, more than 50 metric tons of humanitarian relief items – including mosquito nets, blankets, kitchen sets and solar lamps – have been mobilized with the support of LATAM Cargo and UPS to complement wider relief efforts across affected communities.
“They have helped us with medical care, medicines, water and psychological support,” Gusmaira said. “We are taking it one day at a time.”
For 35 years, UNHCR has worked alongside communities and authorities in Venezuela, supporting refugees, returnees, displaced people and host communities. Today, that support continues in some of the areas hardest hit by the earthquakes, helping families recover documentation, access protection services and move more quickly towards longer-term solutions.
"Recovery starts long before a home is rebuilt," said Kirstin Halvorsen, UNHCR’s Acting Representative in Venezuela. "It begins when people can access support, reconnect with services, recover documentation, and start imagining a future again. Our role is to help families take those first steps while strengthening the Government’s existing protection systems for a longer-term impact."
A relieved Gusmaira cradles her newborn daughter, Irena.
For Yuleima, recovery began with something simpler: knowing her family was alive. The first days were marked by panic attacks, uncertainty and fear. But over time, she watched communities come together. Humanitarian assistance began arriving. Parents looking after each other’s children. Families shared what little they had. “Here we started from zero. But little by little, we are moving forward. We all call each other neighbours now,” she said. “We’ve learned to lean on one another.”
Two weeks ago, Gusmaira could not sleep thinking about whether she would ever see her newborn daughter again. Today, she cradles her baby in her arms as she watches her other children play nearby.
While the future remains uncertain and many families still do not know when they will return home, across Venezuela, recovery is already taking shape in family reunions, shared meals, children returning to laughter, and neighbours helping each other.
"The most important thing is that we are together and our family is complete," Gusmaira concluded.
