'We go down with the ship': Meet the homeless youth running Venezuela's earthquake shelters
Their task is the management of a shelter for victims of the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes. The dozen or so staff have designed a digital system to register residents, most of whom have suffered…
Assessment
Venezuela's humanitarian crisis has reached a point where homeless youth are now the primary operators of earthquake shelters, a role that reveals the collapse of state infrastructure. These young people have built a digital registration system from scratch, demonstrating remarkable competence in a situation where adults and institutions have failed them. The story raises pressing questions about how long such makeshift systems can hold, and what happens to these youth once international attention fades.