SPAIN. The Directorate-General of Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection of the European Commission (DG ECHO) organized a shipment of humanitarian aid to Venezuela, mainly Spain has co-sponsored, together with Portugal.
The joint operation, 82.5 tonnes of humanitarian aid have been transported to Caracas on two flights between Wednesday and Saturday. Five tonnes sent correspond to a donation from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Spanish acronym: AECID), through the Humanitarian Action Office to UNICEF for distribution on the ground.
The shipment comprised personal protective equipment (PPE), medication, water purification equipment, and family hygiene kits from UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations Population Fund. The five tonnes donated by AECID to UNICEF correspond to 544 hygiene kits for families. The whole shipment was transported on two flights using the European Union Humanitarian Air Bridge (EU HAB), enabled by the European Commission to assist in areas in a critical situation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first plane, with the AECID donation to UNICEF, flew from Madrid on Wednesday and the second left Maastricht on Friday. 200 European citizens in a situation of vulnerability from a humanitarian perspective, selected by the European Union embassies and consular office in Caracas, flew back on the return Caracas-Madrid flight.
The European Union financed the flights, while the shipment was made available by the humanitarian organizations that used this air bridge. More than half a million Venezuelans will benefit from this aid, including children, women, and health professionals.
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The demand from several humanitarian organizations operating in Venezuela on only humanitarian missions. The sole aim is to contribute to easing the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. This operation is like others that both Spain and the EU, and humanitarian organizations, have carried out in other countries.
