AMNA NAWAZ: Today marks one month since powerful earthquakes devastated parts of Venezuela, triggering a humanitarian crisis that is far from over.

Damage to schools, health facilities, and water systems has left communities without essential services, complicating an already difficult recovery.

Joining me now is Nate Mook, who leads the aid organization All Hands and Hearts.

He's just returned from Venezuela.

Thank you so much for being here.

NATE MOOK, CEO, All Hands and Hearts: Thanks for having me, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: You literally got back to the United States today after a week on the ground.

So just tell us, what does it feel like, what does it look like on the ground in Venezuela?

NATE MOOK: It's really hard to describe in words the scale of the devastation.

It's a little surreal because Caracas, the capital city, has mostly been spared by the earthquakes.

So it's sort of getting back to normal.

But as you drive north to the seaside, which is the community of La Guaira, which was hit by the two earthquakes back to back, it just looks almost like a war zone.

I have spent time in Gaza, and that's kind of the closest I can describe it, just buildings completely brought down to the ground.

And I think what's so tragic is now, a month later, Venezuelans are still there, standing on these buildings, digging down, trying to find their loved ones.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tell me about some of the people you met on the ground.

NATE MOOK: So, we met this amazing woman named Lara.

And Lara lost her brother-in-law and some other family members that were in one of the buildings that came down.

It happened so quickly.

Just the scale of these massive towers, building towers, brought down to the ground is just really hard to describe.

So Lara has been there from the start with friends and other people who lived in the building just digging.

She has shovels and buckets.

Ad people are doing what they can with sort of power tools that you would get at a Home Depot, for example.

They have some heavy equipment in Venezuela, but not to the scale that's needed.

So, for the most part, they're just on their hands and knees, kind of working and trying to get through.

They know generally in the building where their family members were, but accessing those areas and getting to those bodies now is what's difficult.

And Lara told us that she can't leave because she needs to -- they need to have closure.

They need to give their family member a burial.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nate, you have been in a lot of disaster zones.

You have seen a lot of responses.

What do you make and what can you tell us about the Venezuelan government response, knowing they were already facing economic and political crises before this, and also the U.S.

government response, knowing organizations like USAID are not what they once were?

NATE MOOK: Yes.

So it's really been incredible.

I think you have a few different pieces.

You have the U.S.

government, which surged in resources and support right away.

This has been one of the biggest responses from the State Department to a disaster in a very long time.

And you have Marines on the ground running the major airport there.

You have a lot of cargo flights bringing aid in.

You also have the Venezuelan government that has mobilized a lot of members of the military and police.

And you see them out, and they are assisting, and there's a lot of civil protection out there, kind of helping to -- even helping to dig in some cases and support families.

And then you have the international NGO community that has also surged in support, like All Hands and Hearts and our local partners on the ground.

We were active from day one, just trying to surge in what we can.

But the scale of kind of the damage and how it is so spread out, because the earthquake, it's not sort of in one spot.

It's really quite a wide area that's affected.

And so you will see a huge amount of assistance in certain areas, and then, in other areas, there really isn't much help at all.

We have a Venezuelan team on the ground.

We have Venezuelan partners.

And they are working 24 hours a day.

One of our partners, Claudia, runs the impact hub there.

This is sort of an entrepreneurial center.

Think of like a WeWork.

And yesterday she went and delivered tools to family members that are digging, and she literally is going to hardware stores.

And so there is something truly amazing to see of the Venezuelan people kind of surging in support.

I think the big question is, where do we go from here?

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

I mean, that is the big question.

You guys, your organization's been on the ground since the beginning of this.

As you mentioned, other organizations are there.

You have delivered food, clean water, shelter, tools, communications equipment.

But the U.N.

says nearly half-a-million people are still in need of humanitarian assistance.

Tens of thousands are in temporary camps.

What's the most urgent need right now?

NATE MOOK: Yes.

So what we're seeing now is this sort of shift from the rescue to kind of stabilization and eventual recovery.

I was just at a community camp that is called El Campito, and it's at a baseball field.

They literally turned to baseball field and started building little kind of shelters with tarps.

And so we brought in clean water and a Starlink, so they'd have some Internet connectivity.

We have kind of tried to find these pockets of support.

There are also people living on the streets.

So if their home was damaged or maybe wasn't fully demolished, people don't want to leave.

NATE MOOK: Their whole lives are there.

All of their stuff is still in their house.

And so they have sort of set up camps right outside.

And so I think what's difficult is, there is not a centralized, kind of single location to serve these thousands and thousands of families.

I talked to a gentleman who was at the campito, and he had sort of built up his little tent structure, and they'd even - - he was even building a little garden.

And I asked him, how long are you going to be here?

And he said he expects to be here at least a year, maybe longer.

They don't know where they can go from here.

How do we transition from this moment of displacement to try to get people into housing and what can be built?

But the scale of the debris removal and the cleanup that needs to happen, that really hasn't even begun yet, because family members, as I said, are still searching through the rubble.

AMNA NAWAZ: Certainly a very long recovery ahead.

Nate Mook, can't thank you enough for being here and making sure we don't let this fade from the headlines.

Thank you.

NATE MOOK: Thank you so much, Amna.