Main content

Women helping earthquake survivors

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to women supporting people affected by devastating earthquakes in Venezuela and Myanmar.

When devastation strikes around the world there are groups of experienced, dedicated teams that will fly in to support local people in saving lives. Others support people in the long, slow task of dealing with the aftermath and impact on health, homes and livelihoods. Datshiane Navanayagam talks to women from Venezuela and the UK about their roles in disaster response.

Claudia Gonz谩lez grew up in La Guaira, Venezuela which has recently been hit by two earthquakes. She works for World Vision Venezuela and was at a United Nations meeting when the disaster struck. On returning to Caracas she learned many of her school friends and their families had died in collapsed buildings. Since then she's been working round the clock to support her team working with UN agencies to coordinate the emergency response.

Lori Demontigny is a registered nurse with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) providing care in crisis zones. Lori was working in Myanmar when it was hit by its worst earthquake for over a hundred years in March 2025. It's thought over five thousand people were killed. She's now project coordinator for MSF in Bangladesh.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

Available now

27 minutes

On radio

Saturday 16:32GMT

Featured

  • .

Broadcasts

  • Yesterday 03:32GMT
  • Yesterday 12:32GMT
  • Yesterday 17:32GMT
  • Yesterday 21:32GMT
  • Yesterday 22:32GMT
  • Saturday 16:32GMT

The best of The Conversation

Enlightening, inspiring, revealing: Some of our favourite Conversations so far

100 Women

Global experience on image, work, relationships, equality, migration and working lives

Podcast