Venezuela earthquake victims flood relief services in La Guaira

CATIA LA MAR, Venezuela (AP) — Victims of powerful twin earthquakes that rocked Venezuela last month as well as people who survived the devastation on Thursday overwhelmed relief services provided by nongovernmental organizations in the hardest-hit areas.

The request for assistance comes as the United Nations launched an appeal for nearly $300 million to help 1.3 million people in desperate need of assistance in the South American country where non-governmental organizations were until recently the target of government repression. Kitchens, mobile clinics and field hospitals are now dotting public spaces in the northern state of La Guaira, where most of the destruction occurred.

“It is clear in the displacement sites, especially after two weeks, that people are coming because they have not been able to get their other treatment,” Tom Fletcher, a UN relief official, told The Associated Press during his visit to Venezuela. “So now they’re not just showing up with fractures, they’re showing up with those long-term health needs. It’s important that we’re there for them.”

Doctors treating people in the Catia La Mar community in that state reported Thursday an increase in skin diseases and diarrheal diseases, as well as requests for medications to treat chronic diseases, including diabetes and high blood pressure. Emerging diseases can be linked to crowded living spaces and poor water and sanitation conditions, which preceded earthquakes in many communities.

Irma Echarri showed up at a mobile unit on the sidewalk across from the church with boxes of eye drops and the painkillers she usually takes, hoping doctors there could give her new drops. She also wanted to be examined because of the pain she experienced in her nose after the June 24 earthquakes.

“It is very painful,” Al-Shari (67 years old) said while waiting to see him. “It hurts because it hurts.”

Echarry’s home was not damaged, but many of her neighbors are living in temporary shelters or outdoors after 190 buildings collapsed and another 856 were damaged, according to Venezuelan officials, in successive quakes that killed 3,889 people.

The government of Acting President Delcy Rodriguez estimated that the quakes left about 18,000 people without a home. The displaced are now living in schools, sidewalks, parks, public squares and other public places.

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Fletcher, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Associated Press that the United States has so far provided most of the earthquake response assistance. Much of the aid on the ground is provided by local groups that have partnered with global humanitarian organizations.

Among the displaced is Zolbe Reyes, who went to the clinic run by the Venezuela-based Paloz organization in partnership with the International Rescue Committee of the global relief agency. Reyes, who was also robbed of her job as a nanny by the quakes, sought treatment from the onset of chest pains.

“I thought my heart was sick,” Reyes, 41, said after his condition was diagnosed and received treatment. “But it’s a nerve that became inflamed after the screaming that day.”

“50% of health workers in La Guaira were directly affected” by the quakes, Armando Denigri, the representative of the Pan American Health Organization in Venezuela, told reporters on Thursday.

“Some disappeared, others died, and others were severely affected by the crisis, affecting their families,” Denegri said, without providing further details.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimated the direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure at about $37 billion.

The widespread presence of NGOs in the country and the freedom the government allows them to operate belies the repression and persecution they have been subjected to in recent years. While Rodriguez served as vice president to former President Nicolas Maduro, the organizations were repeatedly accused of anti-government activities, and the local UN human rights office was expelled.

“When you have a crisis of this magnitude, people put politics aside and are able to focus on saving as many lives as possible, and that’s what I’m seeing so far in this response,” Fletcher said.

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