Months after a devastating pair of back-to-back earthquakes ripped through Venezuela in June 2026, volunteer teams from neighboring Belize remain on the ground, carrying out critical relief work that has touched thousands of displaced and grieving survivors. As of August 11, the official death toll from the twin seismic events climbed to 6,301, with search and recovery operations still ongoing in communities reduced to rubble by the disaster.
Oscar Alexander Cisneros, a resident of Cayo, Belize, is among the volunteers currently supporting recovery and aid operations. Cisneros, who works as a driver for the Mennonite community of Centerville in western Belize, joined the relief mission at the community’s invitation, with all travel and supply costs covered out of the group’s own pockets. He shared that this is his second deployment to the affected region, having already spent three weeks supporting recovery efforts shortly after the quakes struck.
In the first days of his current week-long mission, Cisneros and his team focused on the grim, physically demanding work of recovering victims trapped beneath fallen buildings, supporting heartbroken local families who lacked the equipment and manpower to reach their loved ones on their own. After three days of recovery operations, the team shifted to distributing life-sustaining food supplies. Purchasing staple goods including rice, beans, vegetable oil, salt and noodles, the Belizean volunteer group has already provided meals to roughly 4,000 Venezuelan residents who lost access to basic supplies when the disaster destroyed their homes and infrastructure.
Cisneros noted that the reception from local Venezuelan communities has been overwhelmingly warm and grateful. When the team departed the region for a short break earlier this week, residents repeatedly asked when they would return, underscoring how deeply the cross-border aid has resonated with a population still grappling with the aftermath of a catastrophic natural disaster. Even as international response efforts scale back, the volunteer mission from Belize continues to fill critical gaps in support for survivors, highlighting the power of grassroots solidarity across national borders in times of crisis.