Standing with Venezuela

One week ago today, two devastating earthquakes, a magnitude 7.2 followed, just 39 seconds later, by a magnitude 7.5, struck northern Venezuela, sending shockwaves through Caracas, La Guaira, and communities across the country. Buildings collapsed. Families and loved ones were separated. Thousands of lives were lost, and thousands more are still unaccounted for. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Venezuela in over a century.

At Vidalytics, this event hits close to home. One of our co-founders, Erika Lehmann, is Venezuelan, born and raised in Caracas. This isn't a distant headline for her, or for us. It's her family, her friends, her city, her people. And so today, we want to say plainly: we stand with Venezuela. We are heartbroken by what has happened, and we are in solidarity with everyone working to survive, to search, to rebuild, and to hold onto hope.

Where to give, if you're able

There is no shortage of ways to help, but not all of them are equally trustworthy. Unfortunately, we know the corruption cases in Venezuela are not isolated, so we understand the reluctance from some organizations and individuals when it comes to helping financially.

If you're looking for organizations with a verified, on-the-ground presence in Venezuela right now, here are three we believe in:

• World Central Kitchen — Through its "Chefs for Venezuela" campaign, WCK has partnered with local restaurants across Caracas, La Guaira, and Carabobo to serve thousands of fresh meals a day to displaced families, rescue workers, and hospitals.
• We Love Foundation — Operating under the name I Love Venezuela Foundation, this organization has over a decade of experience coordinating relief through trusted local and international partners, directing donations toward food, water, medical support, hygiene kits, and shelter.
• Caritas Venezuela — With nearly three decades of presence in local communities across the country, Caritas Venezuela is providing food, health care, safe water, and psychosocial support to those most affected.
• Yummy — The Venezuelan "Uber". This company provides ridesharing and delivery services. It's at the center of the local companies making a difference in the country through their donation program.

If you're a developer or are technically inclined, and would like to help with hands-on work form the distance, check out Build4Venezuela an initiative by Venezuelan engineers, PMs, communications experts, and other professionals that are centralizing information, aggregating and cross-checking data, and more to help with important efforts like delivering aid to the right hands or reuniting families.

If your company is interested in contributing, whether through a donation, a partnership, or simply learning more about how to help, feel free to reach out to us at hi@vidalytics.com – or to Erika directly here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikalehmann/

What we won't stay silent about

This tragedy did not happen in a vacuum. Venezuela was already one of the most vulnerable countries in the hemisphere going into this disaster. A country worn down by years of economic collapse and institutional failure under a government that much of the world, and much of Venezuela itself, considers illegitimate. In the days since the earthquakes, we have seen deeply troubling reports of obstruction, censorship, and cruelty by actors aligned with that regime, hindering the very people risking everything to search for survivors and get aid to those who need it most. We condemn those actions without reservation.

The people of Venezuela deserve solidarity and support right now, not obstruction from the entities that are supposed to serve them.

We're hopeful

Anyone who knows Venezuela knows that its people are so much bigger than this moment. The warmth, the resilience, the stubborn good humor and generosity of Venezuelans is a lived, daily reality, and it is on full display right now in every volunteer digging through rubble and how they talk to the survivors they find, every neighbor sharing what little they have, every diaspora community organizing relief from thousands of miles away.

We believe that the same spirit of solidarity and refusal to give up on each other is what will carry Venezuela through this, and what will propel it forward, toward something even better than it was. A country rebuilt, literally and metaphorically into a new home with a renewed sense of what's possible for its people.

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With love and solidarity,

The Vidalytics Team

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