Volunteers to 'drop everything' for Venezuela aid

A number of volunteers from Cornwall are expected to provide emergency relief in Venezuela following the country's devastating double earthquake.

At least 1,450 people are so far known to have died in the 7.2 and 7.5 quakes that struck on Wednesday, causing hundreds of buildings to collapse and leaving many trapped in the rubble.

Cornwall-founded international disaster relief charity ShelterBox is among those offering their support - and will be providing aid for victims in the coming months.

Dave Raybould, the charity's emergency co-ordinator, said it had a "huge pool of trained people ready to drop everything" and join the response. "Many of them are based in Cornwall," he said.

ShelterBox was founded by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard to provide emergency shelter in times of disaster or conflict.

Raybould explained his team was used to working in earthquake zones and would be aware of the environment they would be operating in.

"We don't know the full extent of that damage yet, but from our past experience and what we've seen, we can make a pretty good estimate that it's going to be very severe," he said.

"For us the most important thing is to just have complete and utter empathy with the families that have just lost loved ones [and] everything that they've ever owned.

"We have to be very mindful of the questions that we're asking them and they're in the right way and understanding of the challenges that they've just faced."

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The ShelterBox team plans to listen to those in the community to learn how best to help them.

It has prepared hubs in Barbados and Panama complete with tents, shelter kits for repairing and building basic structures and vital household items like solar lights and blankets.

Raybould hopes to fly out to Venezuela with a supply chain specialist later this week, while the Shelterbox Response Team volunteers will join later.

He said: "Obviously it's a global thing, but we have many volunteers that are based in Cornwall.

"And for the duration of this response, which for us will be around two to three months of ShelterBox's time in this response, we'll be calling many of those volunteers up."