Venezuela emergency: assessing needs to deliver an effective and inclusive response

Reporting on the situation and the real needs

Several thousand buildings collapsed or damaged, more than 2,200 people dead and 11,200 injured, nearly 12,700 people now homeless – the twin earthquakes in Venezuela have triggered a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Given the scale of the disaster, it is crucial to assess the needs of those affected and gather the information required for a coordinated and effective response.

This needs assessment, currently being carried out by HI, is an essential step that must be carried out systematically and accurately. Indeed, when visiting emergency shelters, the organisation’s teams very often observe a lack of organisation that prevents effective assistance from being provided to those affected.

“A lot of supplies are being distributed, but in an inappropriate way. Yesterday I was at a centre where people told me they no longer needed clothes; they were already swamped with T-shirts and trousers. However, they were desperately short of underwear. This clearly shows that the humanitarian response must be coordinated and that it is absolutely essential to listen to the people themselves; they are the ones who know what they need,” explains Yohanna Talloli, HI’s inclusive humanitarian action specialist in Caracas.

Putting inclusion at the heart of the response

During the various assessment missions carried out in La Guaira, HI teams found that the emergency reception centres are not accessible to people who use wheelchairs or crutches, nor to people who are deaf or blind. “The bathrooms are unsuitable – too narrow or poorly laid out – the access points are raised or obstructed, and the places are always very noisy… There is a great deal of work to be done to make these shelters truly inclusive, to turn them into safe havens for everyone,” explains Yohanna.

Furthermore, in the chaos following the earthquakes, many people with disabilities lost their crutches, walking sticks, walking frames or wheelchairs. Many also lost their identity documents, particularly their disability certificates.

HI is working to identify these needs so that people with disabilities are included in the emergency response. Indeed, some well-meaning people are unfamiliar with disability, so the presence of specialists like Yohanna is essential:

“Yesterday, I spoke to a lady who told me she had taken charge of a group of around forty children. When I arrived on site, they weren’t children at all but adults with Down’s syndrome. This lack of understanding, if not identified and addressed, risks leading to aid that is very, very exclusionary.”

Bringing HI’s expertise to bear

HI is one of the few organisations in Venezuela with expertise in emergency physical and functional rehabilitation, a field in which there is a huge need to support all those injured in the disaster, at hospital levels and community to prevent long term injuries.

“There is also a great need for mobility aids – wheelchairs, walking sticks, crutches, etc. We’ve identified what was missing so that we can provide this equipment as quickly as possible, whilst taking people’s individual circumstances fully into account. For example, for someone living in a rural area with muddy and uneven paths, a wheelchair isn’t necessarily the most suitable option,” explains Yohanna.

Furthermore, HI is organising itself to address mental health needs, paying particular attention on expertise in intellectual disability, autism and neurodiversity to support everyone, without exception. Yohanna explains:

“There are many psychologists in Venezuela, but very few know how to support people with these kinds of differences. I’ve met some psychologists sent to the shelters who didn’t know how to support autistic people experiencing intense emotional stress.”

To organise its response, HI is in constant contact with organisations representing people with disabilities, notably through the umbrella organisation Conapdis, Venezuela’s National Council on Disability.

Thinking for the long term

It is crucial to start thinking now about a sustainable response. Indeed, the buildings that have collapsed will not be rebuilt in a matter of months, and there are not enough emergency accommodation centres for all those affected by the disaster.  

“Emergency accommodation centres may well have to be converted into long-term reception centres, with all the new needs that this creates in terms of access to sanitation and hygiene, healthcare, education… We must take all this into account when planning the response and anticipate the new risks that precarious living conditions and overcrowding may bring. People who do not know one another are now living together, with women, men and children all mixed together. There is no longer any privacy, and we must be very vigilant, particularly in protecting women and children from potential abuse,” says Yohanna.

She continues: “Our country was already facing a difficult situation, and many sectors – such as healthcare – were in crisis. How are we going to cope with the situation in the long term if the world’s attention turns away after a few weeks? On Tuesday I went to El Juinquito, an area on the outskirts of Caracas. There, three schools had collapsed. How will all these pupils manage to return to school when term starts again? We really need to consider the structural consequences of the disaster and start planning for long-term reconstruction”.