Here is a summary of what we did during the second quarter of this year.We have now added a feature to these newsletters highlighting positive aspects of our beautiful country.
Food programme
During this past quarter, we have delivered 80,000 meals to more than 700 people from low-income families in Caracas and in Guaraunos, a village in Sucre state. We work with local NGOs to coordinate the logistics and rely on volunteers to prepare and distribute the food. Continuous monitoring of children’s growth allows us to follow up on their progress, their health and the effectiveness of the programme. In the communities where we operate, cases of severe malnutrition are around 4%, while at the national level the percentage is 12%. This difference shows the positive impact of our programme.
Junior doctors
In the past decade, more than 40,000 doctors have left Venezuela with serious consequences for the public health system. To mitigate this brain drain, we sponsor 130 junior doctors in 8 different hospitals across the country. In a typical month, a junior doctor is caring for 100 patients often in very difficult circumstances. Their basic salary from the state is around $50 per month, and Venezuela’s inflation rate is now close to 10% monthly. For these reasons, we have just increased the support to each doctor to $25 per month.
Infrastructure
We regularly inspect and maintain the three water-treatment plants we have installed in hospitals in Caracas. In the second quarter, we also financed the refurbishment of a dental unit in one of the largest hospitals in Caracas and donated an air conditioning system for the blood bank in one of the main cancer hospitals, the Padre Machado.
Annual report
We recently filed our 2021 annual report with the Charity Commission reporting income of £155,849 and £140,783 of expenditure. Details can be found on the Commission’s website:
Raising awareness and networking
We have been leading a project sponsored by the Office of International Migration of the United Nations (IOM-UN) to come up with better ways to work and collaborate with other Venezuelan diaspora groups. We were also invited by the Danish Refugee Council – DEMAC to a workshop with other international diasporas where we presented our experience of working with local NGOs and public bodies inside Venezuela.
How we did it
Since the pandemic, raising funds has become harder for all charities, and the Ukrainian crisis has made it harder still. We have redoubled our efforts to raise funds through face-to-face events, social media appeals, and applications for grants. In May, we held our annual Zumbathon for the first time since 2019; more than 140 people danced for 3 hours, encouraged by an amazing group of instructors. We also had runners in the London Landmark Half Marathon and our volunteers have organised several fundraising events to help us continue our work.
Our new section about Venezuela
In the music world, Venezuela is known for El Sistema, an extraordinary programme that encourages young people from the poorest areas to learn an instrument and be part of an orchestra. But our musical tradition goes back centuries. One of our most prominent musicians was Teresa Carreño who, as a child prodigy, performed for Abraham Lincoln at the White House. In the link below is her enchanting composition Mi Teresita played by the famous Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero.
