In Maracay, Venezuela, the fashion house By Efrain Mogollon has shifted its focus from creating elegant dresses to producing body bags for earthquake victims. Following the devastating 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes on June 24, which claimed over 4,700 lives and left an estimated 50,000 missing, the demand for body bags has surged. Designer Efrain Mogollon mobilized his 22-member team to address this urgent need.
Within a week of the disaster, Mogollon's workshop produced 1,000 body bags, half of which were sent to the National Service of Medicine and Forensic Sciences in Caracas, and the other half directly to rescuers and families of the deceased. Each bag, made of 500-micron high-density polyethylene and measuring three meters long and 90 centimeters wide, includes a prayer card depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Seamstress Grismary Villegas, who has been sewing since she was eight, expressed the emotional toll of their new task. "It's a way of supporting this pain," she said. The United Nations is set to deliver 10,000 additional body bags as the country grapples with the aftermath of the disaster.
The Venezuelan government has established a makeshift body storage site at the port of La Guaira and expanded a cemetery to accommodate the unidentified victims. Mogollon, recognizing another pressing need, has also started producing tarpaulins to provide shelter for the newly displaced population.
