María Elena Páez Pumar, a Venezuelan-born teacher living in the United States, has been fundraising and organising aid for victims of the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on 24 June, killing at least 5,278 people and injuring more than 16,700. Her motivation is deeply personal: as a seven-month-old infant, she was trapped under rubble for nearly four days after a 1967 earthquake devastated La Guaira (Venezuela's main coastal region, north of Caracas), losing her right forearm and a brother in the disaster. Now 59 and working as a high school teacher in the US, Páez Pumar says her own experience of survival and recovery drives her to help others facing similar trauma, urging the newly injured to "find strength" and trust that "with patience, love and support" a full and happy life remains possible.