Three Things That Set Apart United Way's Earthquake Response

Dividendo Voluntario  para la Comunidad (DVC) — United Way of Venezuela is based in the capital city, Caracas, which is close to the hardest-hit areas.

Aftershocks continued, and staff were told not to return to the office, yet within 16 hours, the team was working from distribution centers in their own neighborhoods, prioritizing aid by how hard each community was hit and moving food, water, and medicine to nearby families. There was no team to fly in because United Way staff were already home.

DVC is deeply embedded in the community.  For years, we’ve been helping families with older adults and young children, making sure kids can always find a healthy meal and that neighbors have clean water.

Those long-standing relationships meant the team could say precisely what families needed and direct help to those most affected, especially children, older adults, and communities that were already vulnerable before the earthquake.

On the ground, United Way coordinates with Caritas, a nonprofit that is taking a lead role in distributing food and health supplies, the Venezuela Chamber of Commerce, and the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce. We’re also identifying other communities that need immediate help in real time.

From the first moments of this emergency, our partners have shown extraordinary solidarity. In less than a week after the campaign was activated, the partnership received 10.4 tons of food and 5,700 liters of water and beverages. 

Most of the aid was routed through the Caritas headquarters in Caracas and on to the affected areas in La Guaira, with donor companies delivering medical equipment directly to hospitals.

United Way has also channeled supplies to health centers near the epicenter, including 46,000 units of medicine.

Our local partners are also living through the same disaster. Still, they’ve stepped forward for the wider nonprofit network, coordinating among themselves so that first-response supplies reach the hardest-hit areas.

Around the world, the rest of the United Way network moved with them. United Way in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. stepped forward with critical resources and disaster response expertise.

Sammy Gonzalez, who leads United Way Worldwide's work across Latin America and the Caribbean, put the network's commitment plainly: “Yesterday it was Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria. Today it is Venezuela. Tomorrow it could be any one of us, and United Way will be there."