Switzerland commits CHF12 million to humanitarian aid in Venezuela

A Venezuelan family rests at the Jardim Floresta Venezuelan immigrant shelter in Boa Vista, Brazil, in 2018. Keystone / Antonio Lacerda

This year Switzerland will provide more than CHF12 million ($13 million) in humanitarian aid to Venezuela and the region, it said at the Donors’ Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants.

“This is part of a long-term commitment that increases every year and adds to the amount of over $38 million (CHF34.8 million) allocated over the past four years,” said Patricia Danzi, director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), in her speech at the online conference on Thursday.

Switzerland’s humanitarian aid had been supporting Venezuelans in need in their country and in the region since 2017, the foreign ministry said in a statementExternal link. It focuses on food security, nutrition, education, access to water and sanitation, health care as well as personal protection.

Last year Switzerland also organised a consignment of 95 tonnes of relief supplies to Venezuela from various Swiss and international humanitarian aid organisations, thus making a substantial contribution to the fight against Covid-19, the ministry said.

The donor conferenceExternal link was organised by Canada in collaboration with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Canada called on the international community to mobilise $1.4 billion in financial resources to respond to the world’s second-largest external displacement crisis, which has seen 5.6 million Venezuelans fleeing the South American country since 2015.