Statement by Paula Narváez, UNFPA Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Delivered at the midday media briefing to UNCA in New York, 24 July 2026

Today marks one month since the devastating earthquakes struck northern Venezuela, which claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people and have displaced over 23,000. 

But statistics alone cannot capture the human toll and true scale of this tragedy. 

I have just returned from Venezuela after spending the past week in La Guaira, one of the areas hardest-hit by the earthquakes. There, I met families who have lost everything, listened to their stories, and saw firsthand their determination to rebuild their lives.

While there, I witnessed something that recurs in every emergency: women organizing safe spaces for their families and caring for others, and frontline responders working tirelessly despite also being personally impacted. One UNFPA staff member I met was leading the gender-based violence response, despite having lost her own home in the earthquake. She said she wanted to do all she could to help.

But amid this resilience, the scale of the disaster means that the needs remain high.

The earthquakes exposed and heightened pre-existing inequalities when it comes to access to healthcare and safety. We know that women do not stop giving birth during emergencies, yet vulnerable women and adolescent girls are more likely to be cut off from the life-saving services they need.

The health system is under immense strain. Forty-one health facilities have structural damage, with three completely inoperable. Many facilities also face shortages of medicines, equipment and staff. Disruptions to electricity, water supply, and supply chains, together with the urgent need to provide trauma care to thousands of injured people are stretching already limited resources. This includes the life-saving resources needed to provide sexual and reproductive healthcare, particularly emergency obstetric care.

In Caracas, 30 miles away from La Guaira, UNFPA has provided long-term support to the Caricuao maternal and child hospital. There, I met Camila, a 19-year old awaiting a caesarean section. Her experience was a powerful reminder that pregnancy and childbirth continue, even as communities confront disaster and displacement. 

I also visited temporary shelters, where thousands of people are living in precarious conditions. One teenage girl I met, Pamela, was participating in an information session on gender-based violence. She listened attentively as our team spoke about something simple yet profoundly transformative: learning to recognize violence and knowing that it is never her fault.

UNFPA has been responding to this crisis since day one to scale up life-saving reproductive health services and strengthen gender-based violence prevention and response. These services are central to any humanitarian response. 

We have been supporting hospitals and communities in Venezuela for years, with  training, equipment and medicine for prenatal care; safe birth, including emergency obstetric care; clinical management of rape; gender-based violence prevention and response; and family planning supplies and information. These are sectors that are often overlooked in emergency response - and chronically underfunded. This has to change.

UNFPA and our implementing partners have already reached thousands of people: We are leading the gender-based violence response; distributing reproductive health kits; and providing 16 health facilities with medical equipment and supplies. 

We are working closely with OCHA, IOM, UNHCR and UNICEF to make temporary shelters safer for women and girls, and providing psychosocial support, case management, legal counseling, and information sessions.

But there is much more to be done and this work is far from over.

UNFPA requires 10 million US dollars to expand its response and reach 121,000 people in need of reproductive health and protection services. To date, we have only received 40% of what we need.

One month in and we are embarking on the planning of the recovery phase of the response. But we all know that rebuilding and true recovery will take years. We must continue to support the most vulnerable communities as they rebuild their lives, and restore and strengthen health and protection services. Venezuelan communities have demonstrated enormous strength and resilience. Their courage must now be matched with sustained international solidarity and support.