The 2026 Venezuela & Colombia earthquakes: how to help
Two catastrophic earthquakes struck Venezuela in June 2026 and Colombia in August 2026, leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands of families without homes. Venezuelan Relief UK is getting real, practical aid to the people affected — and you can help right now.
Donate
A financial gift is the fastest, most flexible way to help. Our trustees direct it to where the need is greatest, and every eligible UK gift can grow by 25% with Gift Aid once our HMRC registration is confirmed.
Give nowDonate aid items
We collect practical humanitarian aid in the UK for shipment to affected regions. See what's needed and where to drop it off.
Donate goodsVolunteer or partner
Give your time to sort and pack aid, or offer logistics, warehousing and partnership support to help us do more.
Get involvedTwo disasters, months apart
The 2026 Venezuela earthquakes
On 24 June 2026, two powerful earthquakes — measured at around magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 — struck northern Venezuela within seconds of each other, close to the densely populated central coast.
Caracas, the port city of La Guaira and the states of Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda, Falcón and Trujillo were among the worst affected. More than 1,700 people were killed and over 5,000 injured, with tens of thousands displaced from homes that were destroyed or left unsafe. Casualty figures continued to climb in the days that followed as rescue teams reached cut-off communities. The disaster is what first brought our founders together.
The 2026 Colombia earthquake
On 10 August 2026, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia, with its epicentre near San José del Palmar in Chocó department.
Felt across a wide area, it caused serious damage in Valle del Cauca, Risaralda and Chocó, and in cities including Cali, Pereira, Quibdó, Manizales and Armenia. By late August 2026, more than 300 people had been confirmed killed and over 4,600 injured, with tens of thousands of homes destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people affected. We extended our relief work to stand alongside these families too.
How Venezuelan Relief UK is responding
We collect and fund humanitarian aid in the UK and move it toward affected regions, working alongside trusted local partners so help reaches families quickly and traceably.
Venezuelan Relief UK grew directly out of the response to these disasters. Our founding trustees began coordinating an informal relief effort within days of the Venezuela earthquakes, drawing on their own contacts in affected communities. As donations and collected aid grew — reaching around 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid held in UK warehousing pending shipment — they established a properly constituted, regulated charity to continue the work accountably.
Where we do not operate directly ourselves, we channel support through established, registered local charities chosen for their accountability and their ability to reach affected families. You can read more about our story and governance on our transparency page, and about the people behind the charity on our trustees page.
Every gift reaches families in need
Donations support our disaster-relief work as a whole and are not restricted to a single country or appeal, so our trustees can direct them to where the need is greatest — currently across both earthquake responses.
Illustrative examples — trustees direct funds where the need is greatest. Have a question first? Read our frequently asked questions.
Four ways to make a difference today
1. Donate money. The fastest, most flexible help. Give securely on our donate page by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
2. Donate aid items. We collect practical goods in the UK for shipment. See what's needed and where to drop it off on our get involved page.
3. Volunteer. Help us sort, pack and prepare donated aid. Register your interest.
4. Partner or share. Offer logistics, warehousing or partnership support through our partners page — or simply share this appeal with people who might help.
Ready to help families rebuild?
Every gift, large or small, reaches people who have lost their homes.
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About the figures on this page. Earthquake details and casualty figures are drawn from public reporting by sources including the U.S. Geological Survey, CNN, Al Jazeera and Wikipedia, and were still being updated by the authorities at the time of writing. Last updated 21 September 2026.
Venezuelan Relief UK is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, charity number 1218988. View our entry on the public register.
