In Venezuela, young homeless volunteers are helping earthquake survivors despite their own distress.

A week after the powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela, hundreds of survivors are still being housed in makeshift shelters. In La Guaira, the state hardest hit by the disaster, young volunteers who themselves lost their homes are coordinating relief efforts for the victims.

Housed in a former classroom at the Republic of Panama school, a command center operates around the clock to manage emergency aid. Radios remain constantly active while medical teams work in shifts. Remarkably, those in charge of this organization are young volunteers aged 20 to 27, all members of the youth wing of the Venezuelan Socialist Party.

The shelter is housing more than 350 people who lost their homes after the two magnitude 7,2 and 7,5 earthquakes that struck on June 24, less than a minute apart. According to the latest official count, more than 2,200 people have died, a number that could still rise as the search continues.

The volunteers also developed software to register the residents staying at the center in order to better organize the distribution of aid and monitor families. Most of the people housed there lost a loved one, their home, or both in the disaster.

In a tragic twist of fate, many of these volunteers also became homeless after the earthquakes. Despite their own precarious situation, they continue their efforts to keep the shelter running and provide support to survivors, illustrating the scale of the local mobilization in the face of one of the deadliest disasters the country has experienced in recent years.