A strong earthquake struck Colombia on the morning of Monday, August 10. The 7.4-magnitude earthquake was centered near San José del Palmar, in the department of Chocó, in the western part of the country, and was felt across large areas of Colombia, including Bogotá, as well as in neighboring countries.
The earthquake caused severe damage to buildings and homes, particularly in the so-called Eje Cafetero region and in the departments of Valle del Cauca, Risaralda and Caldas. Among the cities most affected are Pereira, Cali and Manizales. Emergency teams are engaged in search-and-rescue operations and assessing the extent of the damage.
The number of deaths and injuries is constantly being updated and is unfortunately expected to rise.
AVSI has been operating in Colombia since 1997 and has strengthened its presence in the country since 2016.
The Distance Support Program involves 67 children. A new binational Mexico-Colombia project, funded by the Italian Commission for International Adoptions (CAI), was also recently launched. The project is being implemented in Bogotá and Villavicencio, both outside the area affected by the earthquake.
In these hours, the AVSI team in Colombia is assessing the situation in the communities where we operate and the most urgent needs of people in the areas affected by the earthquake, in order to determine how best to respond to the situation.