Donations, manpower and more are leaving South Florida on Thursday to aid in the search and rescue operations following massive earthquakes in Venezuela.
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According to Pew Research Center, an estimated 1.2 million Hispanics of Venezuelan origin lived in the U.S. in 2024. Roughly 254,000 live in the broader Miami metropolitan area.
Now, the diaspora community and other South Florida residents are searching for a way to help. Here’s what you can do.
Donate to Global Empowerment Mission
GEM is a disaster relief organization based in Doral. Volunteers will be packing food, bottled water, hygiene kits and medical supplies to be shipped out.
You can donate at https://www.globalempowermentmission.org/mission/venezuela-earthquake/.
Donate to World Vision
The aid organization World Vision has people in Venezuela and said it was activating its emergency response.
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With Wednesday a holiday in Venezuela, Luis Colmenarez, regional emergency content and communications specialist for the organization, said he was around four hours away from Caracas and watching the “Toy Story” movie with his sisters when the earthquakes struck.
“Halfway through the film, everything went dark and everything started to shake,” Colmenarez said in a statement, distributed by World Vision.
“The shaking lasted between two and three minutes — it felt endless,” he added. Colmenarez said there were many collapsed buildings and that people were in the street and afraid to return to buildings due to aftershocks.
You can donate at https://donate.worldvision.org/give/disaster-relief?campaign=400099707.
If you are planning to donate, here are some tips to ensure your money reaches the hands of those in need.
- Ensure the charity is registered and eligible to solicit in the state of Florida by visiting FDACS.gov/ConsumerServices and clicking Check-A-Charity;
- Contact the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance at Give.org or Charity Navigator to determine whether a charity has any complaints against them before donating;
- Research how the charity uses donations;
- Refrain from providing banking information to unsolicited calls or emails on behalf of a charity
- Carefully review the charity’s name before making a donation.
You should also be on the lookout for deceptive individuals operating an online fundraising campaign, such as a phony GoFundMe account.
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- Consider giving to campaigns created by known and trusted individuals;
- If information that raises suspicion is found when researching a crowdfunding organizer, report concerns to the Attorney General’s Office and the campaign website;
- Note that some pages may lack names of beneficiaries as campaign organizers could be in the process of adding beneficiaries directly to the page; and
- Notify the campaign website if a potential recipient does not want a campaign set up or continued on their behalf.
This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.