FIFA Pledges $1M for Venezuela: FIFA comes forward to help earthquake-hit Venezuela, announces financial assistance of $1 million for the victims

‘FIFA’, the supreme body governing football across the world, has come forward to help the people of Venezuela by showing humanitarian sensitivity in this time of crisis. In view of the huge devastation caused by the extremely destructive and severe earthquake in Venezuela recently, FIFA’s social welfare arm ‘FIFA Foundation’ has made a big announcement of providing a huge fund of 1 million US dollars (ie about Rs 8.3 crore) to help the affected families and speed up the relief operations. According to the official statement issued by FIFA, the primary use of this emergency fund will be to immediately provide essential items like food, life-saving medicines, medical kits and temporary shelter to the victims suffering from the crisis in the affected areas. Gianni Infantino said: ‘The entire football family is with Venezuela in this difficult time’ Expressing deep sorrow over the painful situation created by the natural disaster in Venezuela, the current President of FIFA Gianni Infantino said in an official message, "The entire football family around the world stands strongly with the citizens of Venezuela during this extremely difficult and painful time. Football is not just a game played on the field, but it has the unique power to connect, unite people and awaken a new ray of hope within them even in the most difficult times of crisis. We are proud that we are able to contribute to helping the teams working day and night on the ground in relief work."

How and through which reliable means will this huge help reach the victims? FIFA Foundation Executive President Mauritius Macri, while explaining the blueprint for the distribution of this aid, said that this money will be transferred directly to those selected and reliable organizations which are engaged in rescue operations to save the lives of people on the ground. The FIFA Foundation, through its special ‘Humanitarian Fund’, will deliver this amount directly to Ground Zero through local and international relief organizations (NGOs). A complete detailed list of which Venezuelan states and cities will begin reconstruction work with this relief fund will be released soon after the accurate humanitarian assessment of the ground situation there is completed. Additionally, Venezuela’s own Football Federation (FVF) is also actively providing ground support in the affected areas in collaboration with local football players and fans in the country. What does FIFA’s ‘Humanitarian Fund’ do? This special ‘Humanitarian Fund’ of the FIFA Foundation has been established basically for this purpose, so that whenever there is a sudden earthquake, tsunami, severe flood or any other natural or man-made disaster in any corner of the world, emergency funds and necessary materials can be delivered immediately without any paper delay. Even before this, FIFA Foundation has provided immediate financial assistance to many crisis-hit countries of the world through this fund. Terrible orgy of earthquake in Venezuela: Thousands of deaths and millions homeless. Let us tell you that on June 24 last month, two massive ‘doublet’ earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 occurred in Venezuela at a very brief interval of a few seconds, which shook the entire northern and central Venezuela. Due to this most powerful earthquake in the last 125 years, up to 80% of the buildings, residential houses and infrastructure in many parts of the country, including the capital Caracas and La Guaira state, have been completely razed to the ground. So far, at least 2,600 people have been confirmed dead in this horrific disaster, while more than 16,000 people are seriously injured and thousands of people buried under the debris are still reported missing. Humanitarian crisis deepens in relief camps, United Nations (UN) made a big appeal. Temporary relief camps have been set up in various states for the lakhs of people rendered homeless by this terrible earthquake. But due to lack of basic facilities, patients suffering from diseases like diarrhoea, severe skin diseases, diabetes and blood pressure (BP) are increasing at an alarming rate in these camps, due to which the humanitarian crisis in the country has become deeper than before. Although local disaster management teams are trying to bring the situation under control, the scale of the damage is huge. In view of this very delicate situation in Venezuela, the United Nations (UN) has also made a very emotional appeal to the international community. The UN has called for massive global financial assistance of $300 million (300 million USD) from rich countries around the world to provide emergency health services and food to the approximately 1.3 million people in extreme need in Venezuela so that human lives can be saved.