Venezuela Earthquakes: Children Need Help Now
Highlights
- Powerful, back-to-back earthquakes hit northern Venezuela on June 25, causing widespread destruction
- UNICEF estimates that 1.8 million people, including 680,000 children, need humanitarian assistance
- UNICEF is scaling up its emergency response, deploying staff and supplies, with initial air shipments already arriving
UNICEF is providing emergency support after a pair of deadly earthquakes hit northern Venezuela. An estimated 680,000 children need humanitarian assistance.
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Updated June 27, 2026
UNICEF's emergency response is already underway
Local UNICEF teams are on the ground working to address the needs of children and families after powerful, back-to-back earthquakes struck northern Venezuela shortly after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, collapsing homes and buildings and sending people rushing into the streets.
UNICEF estimates that 1.8 million people, including 680,000 children, need humanitarian assistance following the earthquakes. These figures are expected to evolve as access improves and further assessments are conducted.
The strongest quake to hit Venezuela in more than 100 years
The earthquakes' epicenter was about 100 miles west of Caracas, the capital city. A magnitude 7.2 foreshock was followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 quake — the worst to strike Venezuela in over a century. The earthquakes affected communities in Caracas and the states of Aragua, Carabobo, Falcón, La Guaira, Miranda and surrounding areas.
On June 27, Jorge Rodríguez, the leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly, reported that 1,430 people had been killed by the earthquakes, with thousands more injured. Rescue teams continue to search collapsed structures and conduct damage assessment. Preliminary satellite analysis found that nearly a third of buildings in the worst-hit area assessed so far, Catia La Mar in La Guaira state, have sustained damage.
How to help children in Venezuela? Donate to UNICEF
Hospitals across La Guaira, Caracas, Carabobo, Aragua and Falcón states have sustained severe damage, pushing some facilities to critical capacity and disrupting care for children and pregnant women.
In the Capital District alone, early reporting shows that 432 schools — more than a third of all schools in the district — have been damaged, hindering children’s education; the toll is expected to be higher still in other states once assessments are complete. Authorities are using undamaged schools as temporary shelters for displaced families.
“Three days into the response, the scale of need is becoming clearer,” Manuel Rodriguez Pumarol, UNICEF Representative in Venezuela, said on June 27. “Hospitals are operating beyond capacity, thousands of children don’t have reliable access to safe water, and many schools have been damaged. UNICEF is working with the Government of Venezuela and partners to scale up support for children and families, and continued funding will be critical to sustaining that response in the weeks ahead.”
Learn more about UNICEF emergency response
UNICEF has activated a scaled-up emergency response, deploying additional staff and mobilizing supplies to reach an estimated 650,000 people, including 234,000 children, with assistance across health, nutrition, water and sanitation, child protection and education.
A first UNICEF air shipment of 20 metric tons of medical supplies, water and sanitation items and tents arrived in Valencia from UNICEF’s regional warehouse in Panama on June 27. A second shipment from UNICEF's global supply and logistics hub in Copenhagen is set to arrive in Venezuela on June 29, carrying 48 metric tons of medical equipment and WASH supplies including wheelchairs, body bags, first aid kits, tents, AWD (acute watery diarrhea) kits and water purification tablets and water tanks. Together, the two shipments are expected to support more than 100,000 people.
UNICEF is there before, during and after emergencies
Children are among the most vulnerable when earthquakes strike. In the hours and days ahead, affected children can face injury, family separation, displacement, distress and disruptions to services including health care, safe water, education and protection.
This latest disaster comes on top of a severe economic crisis and political turmoil in Venezuela. Soaring inflation has left families unable to afford food, medicine and other essentials. Children in marginalized communities face multiple and worsening deprivations — malnutrition, preventable diseases, violence and exploitation — while overstretched services struggle to respond.
UNICEF has been working in Venezuela for decades, delivering a child-centered, multisectoral response that combines lifesaving assistance for children with systems strengthening across health, nutrition, child protection, gender-based violence, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) and disaster preparedness. UNICEF estimates that $52 million 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.
UNICEF has already mobilized approximately $3.5 million from its own internal emergency funds to enable rapid initial deployment of supplies and staff, and is calling on donors for additional, flexible funding to sustain and scale up the response.
HOW TO HELP
There are many ways to make a difference
War, famine, poverty, natural disasters — threats to the world's children keep coming. But UNICEF won't stop working to keep children healthy and safe.
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories — more places than any other children's organization. UNICEF has the world's largest humanitarian warehouse and, when disaster strikes, can get supplies almost anywhere within 72 hours. Constantly innovating, always advocating for a better world for children, UNICEF works to ensure that every child can grow up healthy, educated, protected and respected.
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