(Three-year-old Rescued Alive. Photo Credit: Arise News)
A rescue operation in La Guaira has succeeded in pulling a toddler out alive from beneath rubble, six days after the double-earthquake disaster in Venezuela.
The miraculous rescue of the three-year-old in the worst-hit northern region came as tens of thousands of people remained without adequate shelter following the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes, which struck less than a minute apart on June 24.
The UN refugee agency said in an online alert that needs are skyrocketing as the d£ath toll rises.
According to the authorities, nearly 2,000 d£aths have been confirmed, and more than 6,400 people have been rescued so far.
Multiple UN agencies and partners remain on the ground in the hardest-hit areas, working alongside local authorities and aid partners to help families access shelter, healthcare, protection and other essential services.
The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, insisted on Wednesday that every life matters, as national and international search and rescue teams remained on the ground in La Guaira.
UN Disaster Assessment Coordination teams are also helping to assess needs, with the team’s public information officer, Veronique Durroux, saying they are continuing their work to determine where and for whom humanitarian assistance is needed.
In total, some 1,000 buildings, including hospitals, have been damaged or completely destroyed, along with more than 400 schools and water systems.
In response to the emergency, an initial 47-tonne shipment of humanitarian supplies from the UN Children’s Fund arrived in Venezuela on Tuesday.
Those supplies are in addition to a regional shipment from Panama that arrived on 28 June. Combined, they will support more than 100,000 children and families over three months.
UNICEF’s Gabriel Vockel, speaking in La Guaira, said the agency is on the ground working around the clock to reach as many children and families as possible, noting that the first flights carrying water, medicine and other supplies have reached the country.
He expressed gratitude for the solidarity shown and appealed for donations to UNICEF, explaining that more funds would allow the agency to save more lives and reach more children and families.
The shipment, facilitated by the European Union via the UNICEF logistics hub in Copenhagen, includes emergency health kits for urgent medical care, along with supplies for safe births, newborn care, disease prevention and treatment.
Water purification and storage supplies have also been delivered, along with tents for child-friendly spaces and wheelchairs.
Other recreational and early childhood development supplies have been sent to help children regain a sense of normalcy and continue learning.
UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Roberto Benes, said families across the affected states are in urgent need of safe water and access to healthcare.
He noted that many are sleeping outside, afraid of more aftershocks, and that while the supplies will help reach children and families with what they need most right now, the needs on the ground remain far greater than what has arrived so far.
The agency estimates that some 680,000 children need humanitarian assistance across the six states affected by the earthquakes, described as the most significant seismic event to strike Venezuela in more than a century.
UNICEF noted that communities remain at risk from continuing aftershocks, which have numbered more than 600 since the initial quakes.
UNICEF estimates that 52 million dollars is required to respond to the earthquake emergency, as part of its wider 2026 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal for Venezuela, which stands at 137.6 million dollars and was, prior to the earthquakes, only 35 per cent funded.
