New Zealand is donating NZ$50,000 towards the disaster relief effort in Venezuela following last week’s devastating floods, Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Robson announced today.

The donation will go towards the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) appeal and comes from the Disaster Relief allocation in New Zealand?s Overseas Development Assistance (NZODA) programme.

Mr Robson said the flooding was Venezuela?s worst-ever disaster, killing more than 10,000 people and leaving another 250,000 homeless.

?The disaster has devastated the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. Entire towns have been wiped out and hundreds of thousands of people will have to be relocated,? Mr Robson said.

He said the United Nations had mobilised a team to assist the UN coordinator in Venezuela with damage assessment and relief activities.

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For more comment, contact: Josie Harbutt, Press Sec. 025 5888 60 04 470 6676, or Matt Robson 025 909 936

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