AI powers citizen-led disaster relief from afar for Venezuela

Daniella Fernández and Andrea Paola Hernández wrote an article about how, after two big earthquakes hit northern Venezuela last month, many people went online to ask for help finding their friends and family. The government didn’t respond quickly, but surprising people, some developers and programmers helped out fast.

Jorge Bastidas, a 31-year-old Venezuelan programmer living in Buenos Aires, told Rest of World, “We didn’t know when the government would answer. So, we decided to do something ourselves.”

Bastidas and his team of six made a website called Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela to help people find and reconnect with missing family and friends. They used special computer programs called Claude Opus 4.8 and facial recognition software from a Mexican company called Lab-Co. Bastidas made sure the website loads fast and doesn’t ask people to sign up or download anything. In just two days, more than 30,000 reports of missing people were sent through the site.

After the earthquakes, builders and people used smart computer programs to create websites and apps that help find missing people and organize help, because the government was taking a long time to respond.

• Developers and programmers used AI tools like Claude Opus and Replit to rapidly launch websites and applications for disaster relief.
• The platforms have helped locate missing persons, map hospital capacity, and coordinate aid distribution amid a slow government response.
• The citizen-led initiatives need human oversight and robust data privacy measures to ensure they remain safe and effective.

Last month, two big earthquakes hit northern Venezuela, and thousands of people used social media to ask for help finding their friends and family. The government took some time to respond, but help arrived fast from a surprising place: computer developers and programmers.

Jorge Bastidas, a 31-year-old Venezuelan programmer living in Buenos Aires, said to Rest of World, “Who knew when the government would answer? We decided to do something.”.

Bastidas and his team of six created Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela, a website for citizens to report, identify, and reunite with missing family and friends. Using Claude Opus 4.8, and facial recognition software donated by Mexican company Lab-Co, Bastidas designed the site to load quickly, without requiring users to register or download an app. It received more than 30,000 missing-person reports in the first two days, he said.

Bastidas said, “Without AI, it would have taken me about 24 hours without stopping to build something that only took three hours.

The earthquakes caused over 3,800 people to lose their lives and broke many homes and hospitals. They also damaged phone and internet lines, including cables under the sea and towers that send signals. The power went out in many places, making it hard to use the internet.

Because the government didn’t help much, people from Venezuela and Venezuelans living in other countries like Bastidas helped out. Just a few hours after the earthquakes, volunteer programmers in places like Miami, San Francisco, Chile, and Argentina used computers with special smart technology to make websites. These websites helped find missing people, organize donations, check if buildings were safe, see how many beds hospitals had, find places for people to stay, and help pets find their owners.

AI “should never replace the state’s legal responsibility or its accountability mechanisms.”

Samuel Mariña, a developer from Venezuela who lives in California, made a website called Ayuda en Camino, which means “help on the way.” The website helps aid groups, volunteers, donation centers, and people who need help. He made it in just four hours using a tool called Replit. Since some places affected by problems don’t have good internet, he added a WhatsApp helper that can check donations and requests without needing to visit the website, he told Rest of World.

He said that the internet had too many pieces of information that didn’t connect, making it hard to see what people already had and what they still needed. “We wanted to put all the information in one place so that help wouldn’t be wasted and could go to the right people,” he explained.

Jorge Luis Chacón is the boss of an AI engineering company called Henkki. He made a special app called Somos Acompañamiento with a religious group named Ministerio de Acompañamiento International, just hours after the earthquakes happened. The app has not only reports of people who are missing but also lists of people who survived and those who are in hospitals. More than 84,000 people have signed up for it, Chacón said. He is also working with a human rights group called Laboratorio Migrante to create an AI system that can help find and stop human trafficking.

Because there aren’t enough official resources, journalists are using AI to collect information. The Venezuelan women journalists’ group made a search tool with an AI builder called Lovable, which gathers data from clinics, hospitals, and shelters. Journalists in Venezuela and other countries check all the information to make sure it’s correct, according to Valeria Pedicini from the group. She said these extra checks are very important because there isn’t enough official information available.

Marianne Diaz Hernández is a computer security expert who started a charity called Acceso Libre in Santiago, Chile. She made a website called terremotove.com after seeing many people on social media asking for help because of earthquakes. It took her an hour to create a special map that shows where buildings fell, where people might be missing, and any news about the earthquakes using tools called Claude Code and Kobo Toolbox, she told Rest of World. By the time she opened her website, there were already at least three other websites like hers.

Hernández said, “Civil society is doing everything the government should do. People could have used their time for other things, but we stepped in to help the government in any way we could with what we had.”.

AI is not a substitute for people

During big emergencies like what’s happening in Venezuela, AI tools can help look at lots of information to help families find each other, find the closest help and supplies, and make sure aid gets to the right places, said Nicole Sánchez from Fundación InternetBolivia.org.

She said, “AI powers can help do these jobs better, but it should never take over the state’s job of making laws or being responsible for them.”

People say that Venezuelan leaders have taken a long time to help and haven’t fixed the problem well, but acting President Delcy Rodríguez says that’s not true.

Since computers are being used more and more to help people during fights, accidents, and other big problems, experts say that humans need to watch over these systems. This helps keep people’s private information safe and makes sure mistakes don’t cause serious trouble for the people using them.

In Venezuela, even though things need to be done quickly, people who work with data must make sure to collect and store it carefully, with extra strong protections to keep it safe, according to Sánchez.

She said, “It might look like we can worry about it later because right now we have a big emergency and need to focus on that. But it’s still an important problem because it involves private information like fingerprints and other personal data.”.

The people are the ones who make these tools valuable.

The Desaparecidos Terremoto website was made easy for people to use so they could share and find information easily. But then, bad hackers attacked it. Bastidas said they added better security to protect it.
After three weeks, help from other countries is finally reaching Venezuela, but most people still get their news from civilian websites and apps. These websites and apps have made it easier for everyone to see important information, but they can’t take the place of help from the government, according to cybersecurity expert Jorge Sánchez-Primera.

He said that right now, information is all mixed up, wrong, or repeated, and this is without thinking about keeping people’s private information safe. He thinks the government should gather all the information together and make sure people’s privacy is protected.

Some developers are thinking about problems that might happen in the future. Arturo Nieve made a system called Civis to help find missing people. Now, he is changing it to help with bigger problems like floods and landslides. Nieve uses free satellite pictures and weather reports to send warning messages through text and WhatsApp to farming communities that are at risk.

The Desaparecidos Terremoto team plans to keep working for about three months and will keep the website open for everyone to see in case another disaster happens, Bastidas said.

Even though sad things happened, he said it was good to see that people can still do things to help.

Bastidas said that in less than a day, many different projects all over the world started using AI. But he explained that AI is just a tool, not a replacement for people. People are the ones who make these tools useful.