The impact of Wednesday’s powerful earthquakes in Venezuela is, understandably, testing the courage and resilience of hundreds of thousands of citizens and their government. After years of economic decline and mismanagement, basic emergency response resources are sorely lacking. Fortunately, many countries – including the United States – have been quick with offers of materials and expertise to support rescue and relief efforts.

But, as with similar emergencies around the world, ordinary civilians have been even quicker to step in and aid each other. Amid the dust and debris, Venezuelans helped older neighbors walk down rickety stairways, pulled people and pets to safety, and passed buckets of rubble hand to hand in the search for survivors.

While physical infrastructure or capital might crumble, the human capital of caring is not easily destroyed. Rather, the innate spirit of selflessness prevails during times of dire need or apparent disaster – whether it’s amid floods in North Carolina or northern Pakistan, famine and civil war in Sudan, or hurricanes in the Caribbean.

Individual civilian efforts do not release governments from their obligation to restore public safety and rebuild infrastructure with speed and transparency. But they do underscore that the qualities of generosity, reliability, and neighborly help hold essential and enduring value among humanity.

And this is showing itself in the reemergence of volunteerism around the world, although in new forms. In the U.S., continuing inflation is still constraining citizens’ ability to donate money to charitable causes. But, according to a 2026 Gallup report, “Volunteering has rebounded and now exceeds pandemic levels, suggesting that Americans are moving toward expressing civic commitment through time rather than dollars.” And earlier research found that 51% of Americans over age 16 “informally” volunteered and helped neighbors, while 23% volunteered formally through an organization.

Noting that “all forms of volunteering matter,” the United Nations has dubbed 2026 the International Year of Volunteers. Digital communications and connections are evolving new ways to contribute, the U.N. notes, but “whether formal or informal, in-person or digital, ... every act of volunteering counts.”

Expanding channels for doing good can redefine volunteering for the future. “The more anybody can do to make it easier to volunteer, to reduce friction, the better,” Professor Nathan Dietz, of the University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute, told the news site Reasons To Be Cheerful.

One citizen initiative in France – l’Heure Civique (Civic Hour) – has innovated a flexible, somewhat minimalist approach to do just that. So far, 24,000 volunteers in some 250 municipalities have stepped up to serve for just one hour a month in their communities. If all 24 hours in a day are counted, that works out to 12,000 days of volunteer time in just one year.

Deepen your worldview

with Monitor Highlights.

Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.

“People want to help, they want to feel useful,” l’Heure Civique founder Atanase Périfan told Reasons To Be Cheerful recently, observing, “Generosity is a renewable energy.”

As outside aid flows in to help Venezuela rebuild, the people of that country can also know their individual inclination to generosity and care will be reliable resources, too.