Caraballeda (Venezuela) (AFP) – Daniela Lopez, 40, weeps as she speaks with the psychologist. She clutches her thighs, then her chair, crying and occasionally looking up at the sky, as if searching for answers.
Lopez lost four sons, aged 9 to 25, her sister, her brother and her mother in the double earthquake that killed more than 3,600 people in Venezuela. She also lost her home.Sitting in front of a small tent in a park in Tanaguarena, one of the hardest-hit areas by the disaster, she spoke with Alexander Apostol, a psychologist from the NGO Première Urgence Internationale, which has sent teams into the field to offer free mental health consultations.Lopez says the session helped."What happened is enormous. It's hard to lose everything in a matter of seconds," she said."To lose them like that, so easily, so quickly, I don’t know," she said. "I was there too. I couldn’t help them, I couldn’t get them out. It’s not easy."Her husband, Daniel Rivas Perez, a 30-year-old street vendor, along with neighbors, pulled her from the rubble three hours after the earthquake that struck on June 24.
Survivors of Venezuela's twin quakes have received psychological support from members of Premiere Urgence Internationale © Miguel MEDINA / AFP
