One month after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela’s north-central coast, children and families continue to face the lasting impacts of displacement, damaged infrastructure and disruption to essential services.

Nearly 23,100 people are currently in temporary camps across La Guaira, the Capital District, Miranda and Aragua. UNICEF is working to reach approximately 470,000 people, including 169,000 children, with life-saving assistance across health, nutrition, water and sanitation, child protection, education and social protection.

“One month after the earthquakes, children and families are still dealing with the consequences of this devastating disaster. Beyond the visible damage, the fear, uncertainty and disruption caused by displacement can have lasting impacts on children’s well-being,” said UNICEF Representative in Venezuela, Manuel Rodriguez Pumarol. “Continued support is essential to ensure children have access to safe water, health care, protection and the services they need to recover.”

The earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, killed more than 5,390 people, injured over 16,700 and triggered more than 1,400 aftershocks.

Damage assessments continue to reveal the scale of the impact, with at least 856 buildings affected, including 190 that collapsed entirely. Damage to health facilities and hundreds of schools is disrupting essential services for thousands of children, while continued aftershocks are sustaining risks for families living in temporary shelters.

Children affected by emergencies face heightened risks of psychological distress, violence, neglect, exploitation and family separation which compounds risk to their safety and wellbeing. Overcrowded conditions, disruption to routine and prolonged uncertainty can further increase these risks, particularly for the most vulnerable children.

UNICEF is working with the Government, the United Nations system and humanitarian partners to deliver life-saving and protective services across health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, and child protection. To date, UNICEF has distributed more than 82 metric tons of emergency supplies, including health kits, water purification and storage equipment, and early childhood development and recreational materials.

As recovery efforts enter a new phase, UNICEF is calling on donors and partners to sustain support for children and families affected by the earthquakes, but an estimated US$65.7 million is required to respond to the humanitarian impact of the earthquakes in the months ahead.

In temporary camps and affected communities, UNICEF and partners have:

• Provided safe water to more than 8,900 people through the daily distribution of 80,000 litres of water across three transitional camps in La Guaira, and distributed essential hygiene supplies to support up to 29,000 people.
• In coordination with the Ministry of Health, UNICEF supported mobile health teams in providing primary healthcare services, including vaccinations, to more than 21,000 people, including children and pregnant women. UNICEF also supplied 198 health facilities with essential medicines, with the capacity to provide primary healthcare services to up to 49,000 people.
• Reached more than 5,000 people with nutrition services, including acute malnutrition screening, micronutrient supplementation, nutrition counselling, and breastfeeding support for pregnant and lactating women.
• Established child-friendly spaces in transitional camps in La Guaira, reaching more than 4,000 children, adolescents, and caregivers with psychosocial support, recreational activities, case management, and specialized child protection services.
• UNICEF is also supporting Post-Disaster Needs Assessments (PDNAs) across key sectors, including WASH, health, nutrition, and education, to help accelerate the restoration of essential social services for children and their families in affected areas.

“As families begin recovering, children must remain at the centre of the response,” said Pumarol. “The weeks ahead will be critical and sustained support can help prevent today’s emergency from becoming a longer-term crisis for children.”

Powerful 7.5 and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes have affected Venezuela, putting an estimated 3.9 million children at risk across Caracas, Aragua, Carabobo, Falcón, La Guaira, Miranda and nearby areas, UNICEF says.

The earthquakes struck Venezuela on 24 June, damaging communities and causing dozens of buildings to collapse. Meanwhile, children have been reported among the casualties as authorities assess the full impact of the disaster.

Reports show damage to homes, public infrastructure and essential services. Communities also face risks from possible aftershocks as rescue and assessment efforts continue.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the situation in Venezuela was heartbreaking, adding that children’s safety, protection and well-being must remain central to the response.

According to him, disasters often leave children exposed to injuries, family separation, displacement, distress and loss of access to healthcare, safe water, education and protection services.

Thousands of families need urgent support as teams assess the damage. Consequently, damaged homes, schools, health facilities, water systems and other key infrastructure could disrupt essential services for children and caregivers.

UNICEF is working with national authorities and partners to identify needs and support affected communities. The agency is helping provide medical care, protection services, psychosocial support, safe water and safe spaces for children and families.

UNICEF remains committed to supporting Venezuela’s response efforts, especially for vulnerable children and families. Before the earthquakes, UNICEF’s 2026 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal for Venezuela stood at US$137.6 million, with only 35 per cent funded.

Sources
UNICEF Official Website
United Nations News

New York/Amman/Geneva, Feb. 6, 2024 – One year after the deadliest earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria’s recent history, the impacts of the catastrophe continue to reverberate for children.

For those in Syria, the impact is compounded by the effects of a wider ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The two initial devastating earthquakes on 6 February 2023, followed by thousands of aftershocks, killed and injured thousands of children across the two countries, left families homeless and without access to essential services, including safe water, education, and medical care, and increased protection risks for vulnerable children.

Humanitarian assistance has provided a level of support, but, especially for children in Syria, persistent cycles of conflict and crisis continue to put children’s lives and well-being at risk.

Across Syria, almost 7.5 million children remain in need of humanitarian assistance.

In Türkiye, 3.2 million children still need essential services, with UNICEF planning to reach the 1.7 million most vulnerable children in 2024.

“The earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria a year ago turned the lives of millions of children upside down from one minute to the next.

Thousands of lives were lost, while homes, schools and health centres were crushed, along with any sense of safety for many children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, who visited both countries just weeks after the initial earthquakes.

“Government support and humanitarian efforts have helped families to slowly put their lives back together and have provided children with a way to process their experiences. But far too many families, especially in northern Syria, continue to be impacted by a humanitarian crisis that has no end in sight.”

In Syria, nearly 13 years of hostilities, destruction and continued humanitarian crises have put children in the middle of one of the most complex emergencies in the world.

Nearly 7.5 million children require assistance because of a worsening economic crisis, continued localized hostilities, mass displacement and crumbling public infrastructure – with many basic services on the verge of collapse.

Water and sanitation systems and public health services are under immense strain, following years of little to no investment.

This has put children at risk of recurrent disease outbreaks, compounded by a prolonged drought and water crisis, and food insecurity, contributing to increased child malnutrition and mortality.

Around 90 per cent of families in the country live in poverty, while more than 50 per cent are food insecure.

The ongoing economic crisis is also worsening negative coping mechanisms and particularly affecting female-headed households while contributing to the normalization of gender-based violence and child exploitation. 

In Türkiye, the earthquakes disrupted education for more than 4 million children. UNICEF supported almost a million of these children with access to formal and non-formal education.  While great efforts have been made to increase access to education, manychildren in the affected areas in Türkiye remain out of school.

UNICEF has been working with government and civil society partners to respond to the immediate and long-term needs of 4.7 million people, including 2.4 million children.

This has included providing more than 1.5 million children and caregivers with mental health and psychosocial support, and reaching more than 3 million people with safe water.

UNICEF in Türkiye is appealing for US$116 million to continue its work to support children affected by the earthquakes and build back a resilient foundation for longer-term development.

In Syria, UNICEF’s 2024 appeal requires US$401.7 million to provide an essential lifeline to 8.5 million people, including 5.4 million children.

The greatest funding requirements are for water and sanitation, health, and education, while protection continues to be a high priority.

“The situation for the affected children in Türkiye continues to improve, but there is still much to be done,” said Russell.

“In Syria, the humanitarian situation for children and families continues to worsen. Without more humanitarian efforts and resources to restore essential services like education, water and sanitation systems, children in Syria will continue to face a vicious cycle of deprivation and crisis.”

United Nations, Feb. 13, 2023: As the toll in last week’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria exceeds a staggering 28,000 people dead and more than 78,000 injured–and counting– the United Nations is on an emergency footing struggling to provide humanitarian aid, along with several international humanitarian organizations.

The devastated cities in both countries—by an earthquake described as one of the world’s top 10 deadliest in history at a magnitude of 7.8— are urgently in need of food, water, medicine, clothes and shelter—even as after-shocks have triggered the collapse of additional buildings with a new search for more survivors in a doomed scenario.

But the flow of aid is being hindered by several factors, including power politics, sanctions and limited border crossings in a 12-year-long civil war in conflict-ridden Syria.

Asked about these limitations, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters last week: “This is the moment of unity, not to politicize or to divide, but it is obvious that we need massive support, and so I would be of course very happy if the Security Council could reach a consensus to allow for more crossings to be used, as we need also to increase our capacity to deliver on crossline operations into Idlib from Damascus.”

Over the years, Russia and China, two veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, have remained supportive of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while the remaining three permanent members, the US, UK and France, have been critical of Assad’s authoritarian regime accused of war crimes and use of chemical weapons.

But the humanitarian crisis in Syria is not likely to change the power politics in a divided Security Council.

Louis Charbonneau, United Nations Director at Human Rights Watch, told IPS: “We hope the UN Security Council moves quickly and Russia won’t block expansion of cross-border aid, as the secretary-general has requested.”

But Security Council approval, he pointed out, is not a legal prerequisite to conducting cross-border aid operations into Syria. Cooperation from de facto authorities on both sides of any border, in line with humanitarian law obligations, is.

“If the Security Council is deadlocked, and the UN determines it’s feasible and safe, the UN should push ahead to address the crisis and help victims,” he declared.

The White Helmets, a civil society organization that has been operating in opposition-held areas in Syria, was critical of the slow movement of aid.

“Had international rescue teams come into Syria in the first hours, or even the second day, there was a big hope that these people who were under the ruins could have been brought out alive”, Mohamed al—Shibli of the White helmets was quoted as saying.

At his press briefing, Guterres said: the first United Nations convoy crossed into northern Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, and it included 6 trucks carrying shelter and other desperately needed relief supplies. “More help is on the way, but much more much more is needed.”

But the New York Times ran a hard-hitting story on February 10 under the headline: “UN Aid Trickles into Syria, but Residents say it is too Little, too Late”.

Still, the UN and its agencies have responded with all the means at their disposal, including assistance from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN children’s agency UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), among others, and a task force led by the Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.

After his arrival in the Syrian capital on February 12, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria
Geir O. Pedersen told reporters the earthquake was “one of the biggest humanitarian or natural disasters that we have seen recently”.

While expressing his condolences, he said: “And I think, you know, when we see the images, the heartbreaking images, we really feel the suffering. But we’re also seeing a lot of heroism, you see, you know, individuals, civilians, humanitarians trying to save lives, and it is this effort that we need to support.”

He assured that “the UN humanitarian family will do whatever they can to reach out to everyone that needs support. So, we are trying to mobilize whatever support there is. We are reaching out to countries, we are mobilizing funding, and we’re trying to tell everyone to put politics aside because this is a time to unite behind a common effort to support the Syrian people”.

Still, Pendersen said: “We need all the access we can have, crossline, cross-border and we need more resources. So, I’m in close touch with the UN humanitarian family, we’re working together to try to mobilize this support and that, of course, is my key message during this visit to Syria.

The issue of access was also raised by the US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield who said last week that she spoke with Presidents of InterAction and the International Rescue Committee, who both underscored the dire situation on the ground as humanitarian workers and first responders attempt to save lives while also facing personal tragedy.

She also spoke with representatives of Save the Children, CARE, and the White Helmets, who described the urgent need for shelter, clean water, and cash assistance, as well as increased access to Syria to allow local NGOs to deliver life-saving aid.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield voiced U.S. support for additional cross-border access points from Türkiye into northwest Syria to facilitate deliveries of earthquake-specific aid. She commended the search and rescue efforts by the White Helmets, which have saved thousands of people from collapsed buildings in northern Syria.

So far, the UN has released about $50 million from its emergency fund. But it is making a “Flash Appeal” for more funds from the international community.

Asked how much was needed, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on February 9: “We are trying to figure out how much. We’re still doing the needs assessment and I would also encourage – the public can also give through on the OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) website, and the UN Foundation websites. There are ways for people, for the public to give to the appeal,” he said.

Meanwhile, the crisis in Turkey has also been tainted with domestic politics. The slow or belated response has been blamed on the Turkish government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, up for re-election on May 14.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the opposition party and a potential presidential candidate, was quoted as saying: “It is the ruling party that has not prepared the country for an earthquake for 20 years”. (IPS)