VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKES
CORE and the Wayuu Taya Foundation are still responding after powerful back-to-back earthquakes struck near Caracas, Venezuela in June 2026. CORE is clearing debris, and we are one of only a few organizations still in the country providing critical shelter support and making repairs to help families return home as quickly and safely as possible.
Tens of thousands are still without homes; we refuse to forget about them.
OUR RESPONSE
CORE’S ONGOING WORK IN VENEZUELA
- Earthquake Debris Clearing: To date, we’ve deployed heavy machinery to clear more than 12,800 metric tons of debris. This includes debris from active search and recovery sites in La Guaira and Turmero, as well as a damaged school, partially collapsed homes, and community spaces in Morón.
- Emergency Shelter Recovery: We’ve delivered durable, waterproof tarps and installed temporary structures at displacement camps for immediate shelter. At the same time, our shelter experts assess partially damaged homes to find ways to create safe, livable spaces families can return to.
How CORE Assesses Structural Safety After a Disaster
The crucial first step to getting families back home is ensuring the structures are safe. Watch as CORE’s structural engineers and rebuilding experts conduct house-to-house inspections. Our teams categorize damage on a clear green-to-red scale, where a “green” rating means a home requires only minor repairs to be safely habitable again.
CORE’S IMMEDIATE EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE
- Food and Hygiene Kits Delivered: Reached over 10,700 people at displacement camps in Caracas, La Guaira, and Carabobo with vital food kits, hygiene supplies, and drinking water.
- Emergency Surge Support: Embedded alongside local nonprofit the Wayuu Taya Foundation to train staff, run needs assessments, and manage warehousing and distributions.
“Haiti taught us that every solution starts with showing up – and that a single action can spark change. That ethos guides CORE to this day.”
– CORE
What Happened in Venezuela
On June 24, twin earthquakes struck northern Venezuela within seconds of each other. The quakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitudes, were the most powerful to hit the country in over a century. They caused widespread outages, collapsed countless buildings, and left entire communities in ruins.
Months later, thousands of people in areas like Morón and Caracas still have no home to return to. Families are sleeping in street tents or displacement camps, doing everything they can to stay safe and healthy. They urgently need solutions to get back home. CORE is on the ground helping them do exactly that.
Help Us Reach $5M
We’ve launched a $5M earthquake response campaign to help Venezuela recover and rebuild. Powered by Tiltify, the campaign kicks off with a $500,000 donation from the FIFA Foundation. Now, it’s our turn to show up for the people of Venezuela.
Start a fundraiser, share it with your community, and turn collective generosity into emergency relief for families who’ve lost everything. Your donation today goes directly into the hands of families in Venezuela.
Has CORE responded to earthquakes before?
Earthquake relief and recovery work has been part of CORE’s DNA since our inception after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which caused mass casualties and widespread devastation in Port-au-Prince. We understand how, between the seemingly endless piles of rubble and the sudden and incalculable loss of everything familiar, it can be difficult to even know where to begin. Just as we did then, CORE is equipped to support communities with the resources to stabilize in the immediate aftermath and recover over the long-term.
More recently, CORE responded to the Syria-Türkiye earthquake in 2023, which similarly devastated a region already dealing with fragile health systems and economic instability. We provided communities with cash assistance, food kits, and other critical items. We later expanded our program to give financial support to businessowners who’d lost nearly everything, including their ability to provide for their families.
