Over the next two months we will be working in Guyana with UNICEF and the Civil Defence Commission of Guyana to help them with mapping and data management to meet the needs of people arriving from Venezuela and the Guyanese communities hosting them. A two-person MapAction team is currently in the Guyanese capital Georgetown.
More than two million people have fled the economic crisis in Venezuela since 2014 due to shortages of food, medicines and basic goods. The influx of people into Guyana is starting to put pressure on host communities. Our work with UNICEF will focus on bringing the situation for children into focus for responders in Guyana. We are also supporting the Civil Defence Commission to digitise information management processes and to use data to identify which communities are in need of support.