One week after a powerful double earthquake struck northern Venezuela, Right Livelihood Laureate Cecosesola is helping coordinate relief efforts, demonstrating once again how community-led organisation becomes a lifeline in times of crisis.
As emergency responders continue searching for survivors following the powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela on 24 June, the cooperative network Cecosesola has transformed its facilities in the city of Barquisimeto into collection centres for humanitarian aid.
Around 300 kilometres away from the areas hardest hit, volunteers are gathering food, water, medicines, personal hygiene products and clothing to be transported to affected communities in Caracas and La Guaira, where widespread damage has left thousands of people in urgent need of assistance.
“Facing this emergency, we know that recovery is a collective effort,” the organisation said in their public call for donations. “Mutual support and collaboration have always been our greatest strength. That is why we have opened our spaces as collection centres.”
A little grain of sand
The first truck carrying donated supplies left Barquisimeto last Saturday. “We are contacting organisations that can act as a link to get everything to where it is needed,” they said. In addition, healthcare professionals from Cecosesola have travelled to the epicentre to support overstretched medical services responding to the disaster.
“This is our little grain of sand,” members of Cecosesola often say, meaning that every small contribution matters. The expression is particularly meaningful. According to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), around 60,000 buildings have been destroyed or damaged, while the United Nations estimates that approximately 15,000 families have lost their homes. Both alarming and uncertain, the numbers of dead, injured and missing people continue to increase as rescue and recovery efforts run out of time.
“Solidarity is a fabric woven through reliable information, people on the ground and strong organisation,” the cooperative network says. For 58 years, Cecosesola has built community-based systems that enable people to collectively meet their needs through cooperation and shared work.
In 2022, Right Livelihood honoured Cecosesola for “establishing an equitable and cooperative economic model as a robust alternative to profit-driven economies.” Their work has shown how trust, solidarity and horizontal organisation can provide access to healthcare, food and other essential services, even amid prolonged economic and political crises.
That same experience in self-organisation is now helping communities respond to one of the country’s most dire humanitarian emergencies.
