Second Quarterly Report 2020

Dear Supporters,
We hope that this edition of our quarterly newsletter finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy. These have been very challenging times, to say the least, and, like everything else, our operations have been significantly affected. We have taken the opportunity to review our projects and to identify better ways to execute them. The situation in Venezuela changes continually, and although COVID19 has only worsened the humanitarian crisis, some of the largest aid agencies are now allowed to operate in Venezuela. Also, it's now possible to find medical supplies in the country which means we can focus on health issues and health centres that are not benefiting from international aid.

COVID19
Healing Venezuela has provided basic PPE to hospitals and institutions designated by the government to treat COVID19 patients. Kits with masks, gloves, surface disinfectants and hand sanitisers were delivered to 19 health centres.

Medical Supplies
After a pilot project with several local vendors, it became clear that it was more convenient for us to purchase medical supplies in Venezuela rather than ship them from Europe. The new scheme is also greener and more cost-effective and allows us to choose the supplies based on each health centre's needs. The first consignments were sent at the beginning of June and all have arrived.

Food Programme
After Yemen, DRC Congo and Afghanistan, Venezuela is regarded as the country with the 4th highest risk of facing a food crisis. Children are particularly vulnerable. This is why, by mid-April, we resumed the food programmes. Meals are prepared in the schools' kitchens and then collected by parents. Children in remote areas of Venezuela thanked us by celebrating with the British and Venezuelan flags.

Mental wellbeing
The pandemic has undoubtedly had a serious impact on mental health, especially for the less privileged. Apart from offering daily online meditations, we organised other events in Britain - Venezuelan storytelling for children, economists talking about how to survive the crisis and coaches explaining how to bounce back after the lockdown. These sessions were in Spanish and at a time when people in Venezuela and Europe could all login.

‍Junior doctors

‍As junior doctors are at the forefront of medical care in state hospitals in Venezuela, they have been exceptionally busy during the lockdown. Currently, we are sponsoring 111 junior doctors in 5 different hospitals in Venezuela, but we keep receiving requests for more sponsorships. We hope we will be able to offer those in the near future.

Buy Venezuelan

Our registry of Venezuelan goods and services in England is now up and running on our website and we have held 2 successful virtual pop-ups. We have more than 30 associates, from makers of delicious cakes to psychologists. Apart from the annual subscription they pay to be on our listing, these small vendors are helping to disseminate our work through their social media. Supporting them, we are supporting indirectly more people in Venezuela.

How we did it

We were very lucky that despite the extreme circumstances, we could count on the generosity and enthusiasm of so many people. We could raise funds through our GivingTuesday campaign, wardrobe sales,  staging an online Zumbathon and selling our own merchandise. We were also very privileged to receive important donations from the LATA Foundation and individual donors. To all of you THANK YOU, and please, keep supporting us.