Doug sat down with Joel A’Bell from Convoy of Hope to talk about the earthquakes in Venezuela. The team have been on the ground helping the community, after 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck on Wednesday, June 24. The quakes collapsed buildings, leaving people trapped inside.
Aftermath of the Earthquake
Joel had just spoken to one of his team members, Ethan who was in the main area of La Guada, where earthquakes hit.
“He was showing me buildings that have come down, others that are leaning on a bad angle with a rescue squad trying to find people.”
Recovery of Victims
Every few minutes, people are putting up their arms high to signal so that everyone goes quiet.
“Then everyone stops, it goes deathly silent, all the traffic, machines and conversations stop.”
This is all in the pursuit of finding people who are still alive. The death toll has risen to 2, 295, with tens of thousands of people still missing.
People are afraid of their own homes, families displaced and searching for hope in this troubled city.
“There was a whole lot of cheering because they’d just found another person as well. So even all these days later, they’re still finding people underneath the rubble. It’s incredible,” said Joel.
Convoy of Hope’s Relief
“We’re helping with the immediate relief of food and water that people are needing. We’re getting 10s of thousands of hot meals out to people.”
Joel said in Caracas, where many have been displaced, there are tents spread throughout.
“There’s just thousands of people, just in tents. People are living on the sides of the roads, in cars. So we’re getting food and water out to people, just meeting with people, working with local churches in the area as well and having people, pastorally checking in.”
Due to the overwhelm of the earthquakes, Convoy of Hope also offer relief to the pastors who are constantly checking in with people, by taking care of logistics.
“People who need just to go home and sleep or just need some rest, it’s relentless. This is ongoing now for over a week. And it is just intense for people in this rescue effort.”
Survivor Mode
Joel explained what is likely to happen, once the team moves out of survival mode and into rehabilitation.
“The recovery doesn’t happen yet. Obviously, we’re still in survivor mode and still searching for people.”
He explained that they are not able to move the rubble at this point.
“We’ve got to get past the stage where there’s no way there’d be any survivors. The way you dig through rubble is very different when we think that people are alive compared to once that window is closed, then you can bring heavier machinery in and start moving things around. You can’t do that at this stage.”
Further Recovery
Joel said there are still people trapped that they believe and hope are alive, so it prolongs their efforts in recovering the city. At this stage, they plan to be in emergency relief mode for a few more weeks.
“It can be dangerous for women and children and sadly, news reports will probably move on to other stories.”
After emergency relief, the team will get to cleaning up the city, getting rid of rubble and rubbish, then restoring people back to some sort of livelihood, with homes and shelters.
“It’s going to take months, maybe years for this to be restored. Convoy of Hope is committed to being there for the long term. We won’t be leaving this place for some time.”
Joel said it is important for awareness to spread over this issue, not only what is happening in the present, but over the coming months, when news outlets are less likely to report on it.
“We need urgent response and support from people because we need to be able to do the immediate response and then there’s a long-term recovery.”
How to Help
Financial contribution toward this cause ensures a more rapid response for the people affected.
“If you can financially donate, it means that we can purchase in-country, we can procure things, we can send the right relief aid and needs.”
Donations can be made through Convoy of Hope‘s website.
Joel said it is also a great source of information, where you can receive updates via links to their social media pages.
“Something as simple as $100 helps us put together a family food pack that’s going to help people for a week. People are in 10 cities; there’s thousands of people that need our help. The more that people can give and donate right now, the more we’re positioned to keep responding to this entire great need.”
Check out the full chat with Joel A’Bell from Convoy of Hope below.
Feature image: Supplied