August 16, 2026 Venezuela, which has had the largest number of refugees in the world fleeing the country, has been a focus of humanitarian aid following the large June earthquakes that killed between 6,000 and 18,000 citizens.
Prior to those earthquakes, the U.S. Famine Early Warning System projected some 1.8 million people in need of food assistance. UNICEF (as U.N. Nutrition Cluster lead) reports that 11% of children under five nationwide are affected by wasting, but the burden is heavily skewed toward marginalized, indigenous, and remote communities where healthcare coverage is minimal and WASH conditions are critical. The cluster’s 2025 response covered 79 municipalities across 23 states. The Wayuu and Afiú communities in Alta Guajira and the Sinamaica Lagoon face some of the most severe deprivations. The Amazon and Delta regions also have high rates of malnutrition, particularly among the Yanomami indigenous community.
The two large earthquakes that hit northern Venezuela on June 24, 2026 created immediate dislocations with an estimated 3.3 million persons in need of food assistance. This represents the single largest, and by far the best-counted, displacement event in modern Venezuelan history. Of those affected, 5,804 children and their caregivers have received nutrition services according to UNICEF. Hardest hit were La Guaira, Caracas and Yaracuy. An estimated 18,000 people remain homeless from the earthquakes.
Venezuela continues to have high inflation with low purchasing power for its citizens, which is one reason 7 and 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country to exile. Six years ago Venezuela’s internally displaced people were in the west, on the Colombian border, and the international system was building out to reach them. Today the largest counted caseload sits at the opposite end of the country around the earthquake. Around 2.8 million refugees still live in neighboring Colombia.
The U.N. World Food Program has provided food to 120,000 people, including hot meals in shelters, ready-to-eat rations for displaced families, food baskets for households that can still cook, and prepaid electronic vouchers in areas where markets function. The U.S. government has been one contributor, channeling support through WFP as part of a broader $386 million earthquake response package.
Venezuela has been a crisis for many years because of an autocratic dictatorship. Recent regime change did not open space for anti-hunger aid groups. A state of exception decree, a still-paralyzed NGO registration regime, OHCHR still expelled, and dozens of aggressive actions against aid actors have limited aid in the period since the earthquake. Most of the constraints that made humanitarian work in Venezuela difficult in recent years were structural, e.g., the denial of a crisis, the NGO registration regime, hostility to independent monitoring, the security services’ instinct to control assistance. Removing the dictator Maduro did not resolve any of those. In recent weeks there have been dozens of documented incidents against humanitarian aid agencies, including closures of civilian aid collection points, three arbitrary detentions, eight press-freedom violations. Problems include: Entry permits revoked for German and Austrian emergency medical teams; a Chilean rescue brigade accused of espionage; intelligence officers reported present inside shelters and at aid collection points.
One US nonprofit, International Medical Corps (IMC), has worked in Venezuela since 2019. Since then, the team has reached more than 3.7 million people in 10 states, supported more than 120 health centers, and distributed medications, medical supplies and equipment valued at nearly $2 million. In addition to building up health systems, IMC manages acute malnutrition, conducts nutritional screening for early identification of acute malnutrition, and promotes infant and young-child feeding practices, integrated into health programming in remote areas of Bolívar and Delta Amacuro states, where referral services for conditions caused by acute malnutrition are otherwise unavailable. Immediately following the earthquakes on June 24, IMC’s in-country team mobilized emergency medical relief to the hard-hit region of La Guaira, including a field hospital, mobile medical units, water trucks and hygiene kits for displaced families.
Another nonprofit, Caritas Venezuela, is one of the country’s largest and most trusted humanitarian organizations, with a nationwide structure. Its broad diocesan and parish networks and permanent presence in communities across the country are why it is often among the first to respond when disaster strikes. This extensive network enables U.S. Catholic Relief Services and Caritas to work closely with parish priests, lay leaders, health facilities, schools and community organizations to reach vulnerable families in informal urban settlements, remote rural areas and Indigenous territories where humanitarian coverage is often limited. With warehouses, transport authorization and a permanent presence even in hard-to-reach areas, Caritas Venezuela is deeply embedded in communities across the country.
Caritas is now shifting from immediate earthquake assistance toward recovery for those who lost everything, while continuing to maintain field operations, particularly in the coastal city of La Guaira, where the destruction is greatest. Caritas Venezuela reports that it has received over 19,000 tons of aid and distributed approximately 16,000 tons. The scale of the volunteer mobilization is notable: around 10,000 people — teachers, young people, mothers, retirees and neighbors, joined volunteer efforts across all of Venezuela’s dioceses and parishes.
– Contributed by World Hunger Education Service Board member, Steven Hansch
