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Venezuela earthquake - Death toll rises to almost 4,000 · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: To Venezuela, where the death told from the twin earthquake
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: quakes that struck two weeks ago has risen to almost
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: four thousand as victims are still being recovered. You and
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: has said the disaster would have been incredibly difficult for
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: any government in the world to manage.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Stephanie Landais's family lies under a pile of rubble. The
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: earthquake in Venezuela's Laguayra state where they lived, collapse her
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: apartment building to the ground.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: My mind is blank. I couldn't tell you how I
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: feel or what I think. My mission is to get
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: them out of the rubble so they can be granted
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: eternal peace.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Rescuers have recovered the bodies of her brother and her son,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: They're still looking for her mom's and her daughter's remains.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Albaron elsewhere in La Goira, rescuers are still retrieving bodies
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: buried in the massive quakes more than two weeks ago.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: Bibaki, I lived here.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: I wasn't here the day of the earthquake, and it
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: wasn't until today that I could recover my daughter and
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: my mother. I was able to get their bodies out
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: with the help of people who were right here from neighbors,
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: because there's no help from anyone else.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: The twin earthquakes, with magnitudes of seven point two and
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: seven point five appended the lives of hundreds of thousands
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: of Venezuelans. Survivors are still in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: The u WENT, assisted by several countries, are helping provide
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: crucial support while people grieve the loss of their loved
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: ones and their homes.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Laguayra States where the earthquakes hit just outside the capitol
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, which is where we find
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that correspondent hand Ramirez.
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: Welcome your hand. What have you been seeing?
• 2:16
  Speaker 6: A lot of destruction in the state of Lawaira. Some
• 2:20
  Speaker 6: places are completely devastated. There are some streets where no
• 2:25
  Speaker 6: one single building stays in place. Everything has collapsed. In
• 2:29
  Speaker 6: other places there are still buildings in place, but very
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: very damaged, and a lot of suffering people still looking
• 2:36
  Speaker 6: two weeks after the earthquake, looking still for they loved
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: ones under the debris. But you see behind me is
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: one of the buildings in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela,
• 2:45
  Speaker 6: who collapsed a couple of weeks ago, and you see
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: still works removing the debris and trying still to find
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: some bodies. There is no official numbers of missing people,
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  Speaker 6: but according to the Civil Society, let's say there are
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: more than thirty thousand, and some other given number of
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: forty thousand United Nations fifty thousand. I mean, the number
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: is not precise, but the suffering is clear. There are
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: a lot of people in the state of Lawaara looking
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: for the loved ones and the since we have seen
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: the last ten days working on the ground are really heartbreaking.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: The Venezuelan government has been criticized for doing too little.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Tell us more about those criticisms and the government's response.
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: I've been talking with many rescuers from Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, Qatar,
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: all of them. All of them coincide with the fact
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: that they could arrive to three four days later than inspected.
• 3:47
  Speaker 6: That they were ready to arrive immediately after the earthquake,
• 3:51
  Speaker 6: but because of bureaucracy and other things, they arrived here
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: three four days later. I was talking with colleagues journalists
• 3:59
  Speaker 6: who were working on theerground since the very beginning of
• 4:02
  Speaker 6: this tragedy. I mean, the earthquake took place on Wednesday,
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: evening twenty fourth and they arrived on Thursday six am,
• 4:08
  Speaker 6: and they told me that they here are people screaming
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: under the debris, screaming from the ruins, asking begging for help,
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: and no one was there. They tell me that they
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: were there since Thursday and they saw the first rescuer
• 4:22
  Speaker 6: arriving on Sunday. And it means life or death for
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: thousands of people.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: The United States kidnapped Venezuela's president seven months ago and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: installed his deputy in that place. Has this increased the
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: US interest in the country. Has that been matched by
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: an increased US disaster response?
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: Of course it matched. It would be naive to think
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  Speaker 6: that the United States don't have a huge interest on
• 4:55
  Speaker 6: this catastrophe to be solved as soon as possible, and
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: the areas in Laguaya could be reconstructed. But we have
• 5:04
  Speaker 6: to say also that the United States where one of
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: the countries that first responded, sending help people, rescuers, money
• 5:12
  Speaker 6: to help the victims of this earthquake.
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: And what's being said about reconstruction.
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  Speaker 6: The national government has announced a big plan of major
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: housing construction project in Laguayra also incorrect as in other places,
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: with millions and millions of dollars, a huge budget. How
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: much money they haven't said it so far, how in
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: which terms? When?
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  Speaker 5: Where?
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: All of those questions are open and the government hasn't
• 5:47
  Speaker 6: had precise answers. They have just announced this big plan,
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: but real politics to solve the problems of the victims.
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: We are still waiting for those answers.
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: Okay, Johan, thank you for that you had Ramira.
• 6:05
  Speaker 7: We can as speak to Aisha Majid. She's a media
• 6:07
  Speaker 7: manager at Save the Children and joins us from Karakas. Aisha,
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: welcome to the day. We just heard stories of incredible
• 6:14
  Speaker 7: hardship and that's just a small glimpse of the situation
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  Speaker 7: in Venezuela. And I'd like to start with a personal
• 6:19
  Speaker 7: question here. What has been the most difficult part of
• 6:22
  Speaker 7: your work in the aftermath of the earthquake.
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  Speaker 8: Well, for me Save the Children, we're working with children,
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  Speaker 8: so one of the most difficult parts for me personally,
• 6:36
  Speaker 8: of course, is it's talking to children. Every day, I'm
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: hearing stories of how children have been impacted by the earthquake.
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  Speaker 8: They're telling me things such as they feel scared when
• 6:51
  Speaker 8: they see cracks in the ground, they feel the earth
• 6:55
  Speaker 8: is going to open up again. I'm hearing stories of
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  Speaker 8: children who are afraid to sleep at night, other children
• 7:03
  Speaker 8: who who don't have enough water to drink. I think
• 7:07
  Speaker 8: that's it's it's incredibly heartbreaking and difficult to hear those stories.
• 7:14
  Speaker 7: Describe it as what daily life is like now for
• 7:18
  Speaker 7: the people in the most affected areas well.
• 7:22
  Speaker 8: There are thousands of people still displaced from their homes.
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  Speaker 8: I mean around seventeen thousand people lost their homes. So
• 7:30
  Speaker 8: there are people sleeping in the streets. There are people
• 7:36
  Speaker 8: camped out by the beach in LAGWAYDA, which was one
• 7:40
  Speaker 8: of their areas most affected. Where I've been with our
• 7:44
  Speaker 8: teams today, there are people sleeping in the out in
• 7:48
  Speaker 8: the outdoors, exposed to the elements. It's pretty hot in
• 7:53
  Speaker 8: the day here. It's also raining because it's the rainy season.
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  Speaker 8: So there are some people, for example, who who are
• 8:01
  Speaker 8: telling me that.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: At night their their mattresses get wet.
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  Speaker 8: It's you know, difficult for them to dry dry them
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  Speaker 8: in the day.
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  Speaker 4: There's a lot of uncertainty.
• 8:11
  Speaker 8: People are just not sure what's going to what's going
• 8:15
  Speaker 8: to to come next. We're seeing we're seeing children with
• 8:20
  Speaker 8: with health needs as well, children with respiratory infections. The
• 8:25
  Speaker 8: situation on the ground really is really is is dire.
• 8:30
  Speaker 7: What are the main challenges you and your team of
• 8:33
  Speaker 7: eight workers are facing.
• 8:36
  Speaker 8: I mean, in any in any disaster like this of
• 8:39
  Speaker 8: this scale, it's it's incredibly complex, and these earthquakes were
• 8:45
  Speaker 8: these twin earthquakes were devastating. So there are there are
• 8:49
  Speaker 8: huge needs on the ground and one of the challenges
• 8:53
  Speaker 8: in any.
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  Speaker 4: Disaster like this is obviously coordination.
• 8:57
  Speaker 8: There are a lot of actors working on the ground
• 9:00
  Speaker 8: around and it's it's incredibly needed, but incredibly complex as
• 9:04
  Speaker 8: well to coordinate I mean us as Save the Children.
• 9:07
  Speaker 8: We are coordinating with with with the un with the local.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: Authorities, with other actors.
• 9:14
  Speaker 8: But it's never it's never simple to coordinate the efforts
• 9:19
  Speaker 8: on the ground, but it's incredibly needed and we are
• 9:21
  Speaker 8: doing it just but it's incredibly important to ensure that
• 9:24
  Speaker 8: the aid gets to those families and children who need
• 9:28
  Speaker 8: it the most.
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: Your organization's main focus is of course children, many of
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: them have lost everything. How can a young person bounce
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: back from such a life altering event.
• 9:42
  Speaker 8: Yeah, we're hearing really heartbreaking stories from from children, children
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  Speaker 8: who who have lost their They've lost their family members,
• 9:51
  Speaker 8: they've lost their friends, they've lost their homes, they've lost
• 9:54
  Speaker 8: their possessions. A lot of them are saying they just
• 9:56
  Speaker 8: you know, they want to they want to find their friends,
• 9:59
  Speaker 8: they want to f their family members.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of uncertainty for them. So in a.
• 10:03
  Speaker 8: Situation like this, it's absolutely vital that these children and
• 10:09
  Speaker 8: these families receive mental health support, psychological support as quickly
• 10:17
  Speaker 8: as possible because in a disaster like this, it really
• 10:20
  Speaker 8: is important that children are supported as quickly as possible
• 10:25
  Speaker 8: to ensure that they have the best chance to recover
• 10:29
  Speaker 8: from the distress and the trauma that they are living through.
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: Yeah, that's one side of it. Is there anything you
• 10:36
  Speaker 7: can do to restore a sense of normalcy to the
• 10:39
  Speaker 7: children living through, you know, a truly extraordinary tragedy.
• 10:45
  Speaker 8: Yes, I mean one of the things that that we're
• 10:48
  Speaker 8: doing is save the children. And you know, this week
• 10:52
  Speaker 8: and I've been out in.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Our safe spaces.
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  Speaker 8: So these are spaces that we run where children can
• 11:00
  Speaker 8: come and we're running these in areas where children are
• 11:05
  Speaker 8: are living outside. So it's just a place where children
• 11:08
  Speaker 8: can come. Uh, they can they can play, they can
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  Speaker 8: they can learn, do some informal learning.
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  Speaker 4: They can play games, they can kick a ball, they.
• 11:20
  Speaker 8: Can talk to We have counselors and psychologists at these
• 11:24
  Speaker 8: sites as well, but it's just a place where they
• 11:26
  Speaker 8: can go for for a few hours just to just
• 11:30
  Speaker 8: to feel like children again, which is which is so important.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, I was, you know, we're with I was.
• 11:35
  Speaker 8: With children and the coloring, drawing, singing, playing games, like games,
• 11:40
  Speaker 8: like like like any child. But it is so important
• 11:43
  Speaker 8: that children have these kind of safe spaces to to
• 11:47
  Speaker 8: go to.
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  Speaker 7: Absolutely, if there is one thing you wish people outside
• 11:51
  Speaker 7: of Venezuela knew about what's going on in the country,
• 11:54
  Speaker 7: what would that.
• 11:55
  Speaker 8: Be, Well, I think right now we're seeing the the
• 12:00
  Speaker 8: phase where the needs are very urgent and very acute.
• 12:05
  Speaker 8: There's a need, of course, there's so many shelter, health, food,
• 12:11
  Speaker 8: mental health support.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: But what I would say is that.
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  Speaker 8: Recovering from a disaster of this scale doesn't happen overnight.
• 12:21
  Speaker 8: And what we need we need an emergency and urgent
• 12:25
  Speaker 8: aid right now, but the people of Venezuela are also
• 12:29
  Speaker 8: going to need support very much for the medium and
• 12:32
  Speaker 8: the long term as well, to ensure that this disaster
• 12:36
  Speaker 8: does not make the situation for children and families worse
• 12:42
  Speaker 8: and deep in the crisis that was already in the country.
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  Speaker 7: Hi sha Maajida, save the children. Thank you so much
• 12:47
  Speaker 7: for your time. Great speaking to you today.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Thank you