Catia La Mar (Venezuela): Victims of the powerful twin earthquakes that jolted Venezuela last month, as well as people spared by the destruction, on Thursday flocked to relief services offered by non-governmental organisations in the hardest-hit areas.
The demand for help comes as the United Nations launched an appeal for roughly $ 300 million to assist 1.3 million people in urgent need of aid in the South American country, where non-governmental organisations had, until recently, been targets of government repression. Mobile kitchens and clinics, as well as field hospitals, now dot public spaces in the northern state of La Guaira, where most of the devastation occurred.
"It is clear at displacement sites that, particularly after two weeks, people are turning up because they haven't been able to get their other treatments," UN relief chief Tom Fletcher told The Associated Press during his visit to Venezuela. "So, they're not turning up with just fractures now; they're turning up with those longer-term health needs. And it's vital that we're there for them."
Doctors treating people in Catia La Mar, in La Guaira state, on Thursday reported an increase in skin conditions and diarrhoeal diseases, as well as requests for medication to treat chronic illnesses, including diabetes and high blood pressure. The emerging diseases can be linked to crowded living conditions and poor water and sanitation facilities, which, in many communities, predate the earthquakes.
Irma Echarri turned up at a mobile clinic on a pavement across the road from a church carrying the boxes of the eye drops and pain reliever she usually takes, hoping doctors there could provide replacements. She also wanted treatment for pain that developed in her nose after the June 24 earthquakes.
"It hurts a lot," Echarri, 67, said while waiting to be seen. "It hurts because it hurts."
Echarri's home was not damaged, but many of her neighbours are living in temporary shelters or outdoors after 190 buildings collapsed and 856 others were damaged, according to Venezuelan officials, in the back-to-back earthquakes that killed 3,811 people.
The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez has estimated that the earthquakes left about 18,000 people homeless. The displaced are now living in schools, pavements, parks, plazas and other public spaces.
Fletcher, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AP that the United States has so far provided most of the earthquake-response aid. Much of the assistance on the ground is being delivered by local groups that have partnered with global humanitarian organisations.
Among the displaced is Zulbey Reyes, who visited the clinic run by the Venezuela-based organisation Paluz in partnership with the global relief agency International Rescue Committee. Reyes, who also lost her job as a nanny because of the earthquakes, sought treatment after developing chest pain.
"I thought it was my heart that was sick," Reyes, 41, said after being diagnosed and receiving medication. "But it's a nerve that became inflamed after the screams that day."
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has estimated direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure at around USD 37 billion.
The widespread presence of non-governmental organisations in the country, and the freedom with which they operate, contrasts with the repression and persecution they faced in recent years. While Rodríguez served as vice president to former President Nicolás Maduro, organisations were repeatedly accused of anti-government activities, and the UN's local human rights office was expelled.
"When you have a crisis of this magnitude, people put politics to one side and are able to focus on saving as many lives as possible, and that's what I'm seeing so far in this response," Fletcher said.
