Dear Supporters,
The image heading this email shows El Ávila, the imposing mountain that separates Caracas from the Caribbean Sea. The light at its summit marks the beginning of Christmas—a time traditionally associated with peace and festivities.
Yet to describe this past few days as peaceful would be a stretch. From a non-declared war to a Nobel Peace Prize, we have lived through weeks marked by fear, exhilaration, and cautious optimism.
Only time will tell what lies ahead.
But for now, let us pause to celebrate and reflect on what we achieved this remarkable year with your support.
The Junior Doctor Scholarship Programme continued throughout 2025, bringing the great joy of seeing 31 junior doctors complete their specialist training with our support across their entire careers. Through their hard work, and with your support, more than 146,000 patients received medical care.
In 2025, our potable water plants produced more than 355,800 litres of safe drinking water, benefiting an estimated 70,000+ people in state hospitals. We also continued the maintenance and water-quality monitoring programme, expanding the pipelines to include a school adjacent to the Materno Infantil de Caricuao Hospital.
In 2019, we began supporting a small village in one of Venezuela’s most impoverished regions. The initiative was sparked by Danna, a malnourished one-year-old girl whose prognosis was grim. In the village of Guaraunos, 100 children received two meals and a daily snack for more than five years.
With your support, today, Danna is healthy and thriving, and the programme has evolved. We have transitioned from emergency food aid to fostering a sustainable, community-led business run by women in the village.
In 2023, we introduced a new technology to Venezuela: Point-of-Care Portable Ultrasound (POCUS), donating three devices to a medical school in Caracas. It was such a success that the College of Internal Medicine formally included POCUS training in its curriculum. By 2025, we had shipped in total twelve POCUS devices, expanding the programme to other hospitals across Venezuela.
Thanks to the outstanding leadership of Dr Kate Otto, the skills acquired by doctors trained through her programme are now comparable to those of clinicians trained in the United States. Thank you, Kate!
Deciding when to have children is a choice every woman should be able to make. Since 2018, we have supported women in Lara State in making informed decisions about their reproductive health and rights. In 2025 alone, 78 women, of which 8 were teenagers, received direct support through this programme.
We were delighted to join forces with a remarkable organisation, SOS Telemedicina UCV, a programme that includes continuous education, research, medical care and outreach with a great team leading Healing Venezuela Inc, our branch in the USA. Thank you, Joe, Sebastian, Hector and all!
Advocacy is a core part of our mission. In the final quarter of the year, we were invited by DEMAC to participate in a forum on diasporas in Geneva, where we shared perspectives with colleagues and friends from Ukraine and Syria.
We were also honoured to attend the official Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, where the prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan woman recognised for her determination and courage in pursuing a democratic path against overwhelming odds. Kudos to her.
As always, we were supported by an extraordinary army of volunteers from all walks of life and across all age groups who helped us organise a demanding fundraising and social calendar. Healing Venezuela exists not only to support people in Venezuela, but also to build a community in the UK. In that sense, we achieved more than we could ever have imagined.
To our new trustees Alicia, Maria Jose and Anyi: Welcome!
To our generous donors: thank you, on behalf of the thousands of people whose lives you have touched.
And on this positive note, we close the year wishing you a very happy holiday season and a healthy, prosperous, and adventure-filled 2026.