Venezuela earthquake: Mobile medical clinic units for the crisis region

Cologne/Caracas. The Malteser International emergency relief team arrived in the crisis zone over the weekend and has begun its work. “The situation on the ground is catastrophic. People are still being rescued sporadically. To hear survivors in the rubble, the surrounding area must be absolutely silent. The silence that hangs over the destroyed houses is deeply moving. There are too few ambulances, and the injured are sometimes being transported to nearby hospitals on makeshift motorcycle rides. There is a particular shortage of emergency medical equipment, medication, and trauma supplies,” reports Jonas Jung, Malteser International's emergency relief coordinator in La Guaira.

“The Venezuelan Malteser are providing care to the wounded in La Guaira and distributing drinking water and clothing to those affected. Together with our local partner organization PALUZ, we will also deploy 30 fully equipped mobile clinic units for a period of three months to ensure continuous, decentralized medical care for people in the worst-affected areas of Caracas, La Guaira, and Miranda. Furthermore, given the acute shortage of medication in the crisis region, we are sending medicines and medical supplies from Germany,” Jung continued.

The mobile teams will visit different communities daily, providing medical care to the people there. Two doctors from Malteser International's pool of experts will also join an emergency medical team from Johanniter Accident Assistance, which will travel to the earthquake zone on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of people are still missing following the devastating earthquakes last Wednesday. Malteser International has been working with local partner organizations in Venezuela for years.

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Jonas Jung, Emergency Relief Coordinator at Malteser International, is available in Venezuela for interviews and sound bitesContact: Katharina Kiecol, +49 (0)221 9822-7181 katharina.kiecol@malteser-international.org

People in the earthquake zone are in urgent need of donations:

Maltese Relief Service e. V.

IBAN: DE10 3706 0120 1201 2000 12

Keyword: “Earthquake Venezuela”

Online: www.malteser.de

Maltese are Member of the alliance Aktion Deutschland Hilft

Donation keyword: “Earthquake Venezuela”

IBAN: DE62 3702 0500 0000 1020 30 (SozialBank)