Colombia earthquake, August 2026
On Monday 10 August 2026, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia, with its epicentre near San José del Palmar in Chocó department. It is the strongest earthquake to hit the region in decades. The Colombian government has declared a national emergency.
At least 224 people have been killed and around 9,521 homes damaged or destroyed. Almost 800 schools have been affected, disrupting children's learning, and dozens of health facilities have been damaged, including a major hospital in Cali.
Maria Mercedes Liévano, our Country Director in Colombia, said: "Thousands of homes have been damaged or entirely reduced to rubble, and schools, community centres and hospitals - the places children rely on to feel safe - have been damaged. For thousands of children, their whole world and sense of safety have been ripped away."
In Buenaventura, one of the worst-affected areas, our teams are providing shelter and hygiene kits, safe drinking water, primary healthcare and food, and have set up safe spaces where children can play and access psychosocial support. We're closely monitoring needs in Cali and Chocó, where we're ready to scale up.
Read our full statement on the Colombia earthquake response.
Our long-term work in Colombia
We run programmes across education, health and nutrition, water and sanitation, child protection and children's rights, working in partnership with local organisations and communities in the parts of Colombia hardest hit by conflict, displacement and poverty.
In recent years, over 1.7 million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia to escape desperate conditions at home. We've scaled up child protection programmes in border regions, protecting children from armed groups and traffickers, provided school materials and hygiene kits to families arriving with nothing, and trained teachers to support children affected by displacement. Our Emergency Health Unit has provided ante-natal and post-natal care, including to mothers under 18, and counselling for survivors of sexual violence.
Catalina*, 17, poses for a portrait in a school garden Andrea Hernandez Briceno / Save the Children
Catalina's story: opening doors through technology
Catalina*, 17, lives in an urban community in Colombia with a long history of armed conflict, where children who drop out of school risk being drawn into drugs or criminal groups. When things feel hard, she used to turn to dancing and music; now she's added coding and robotics to that toolkit, through a Save the Children digital classroom built on the STEAM approach (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths).
Learning to code hasn't always been easy. When a project she'd built with a school friend suddenly stopped working, she was furious, until a teacher reminded her that mistakes are how you learn. "If something goes wrong, you'll learn from that error, and you won't do it again," she says. "You keep creating until you get exactly what you imagine." She's since found a real passion for computer science, and the determination to become one of the few women in her community to study systems engineering.
"The digital classroom has been imagination, passion, open doors to learning, it's like discovering a new world," Catalina says. "If you really like what you do and are passionate about it, fight for it."
Claudia and baby Caty's story: a healthy start in life
Claudia*, 26, is raising three children in Tumaco, southern Colombia, while training to become an early years teacher. Her husband drives a motorcycle taxi, and gathers shells from the sea when that work runs dry. Reaching medical appointments isn't always straightforward: when the streets flood, as they often do, transport becomes scarce and the journey gets harder, but Claudia goes anyway. "It's crucial to take my daughter to the appointment," she says.
Since baby Caty* was born three months ago, Save the Children has given Claudia parenting guidance and baby kits, alongside breastfeeding support. Unlike with her older children, Claudia has been able to give Caty nothing but breastmilk for her first six months, and Caty has stayed healthy as a result. A recent check-up did flag that Caty is small and underweight for her age, and she's since been referred to a nutritionist for extra support.
"I thank Save the Children for the opportunity, for helping me improve those guidelines with my children," Claudia says. "My dream is to specialise as an early childhood teacher, to help my children get ahead from an early age."
Three month old Caty* plays with her mother Claudia's* finger while she speaks to a doctor in a hospital Andrea Hernandez Briceno / Save the Children
*Names changed to protect identities
