Healing Venezuela is an apolitical charity whose purpose is to help the delivery of the best possible medical assistance to the people of Venezuela through a variety of programmes, including providing medical supplies, sponsoring junior doctors, improving infrastructure in hospitals and feeding children at risk of malnutrition. During the first few months of 2024, Healing Venezuela has been making active and promising contributions to improving community health in Venezuela.

Healing Venezuela began working with the community of Guaraunos in Sucre State in 2019 on a food programme. Since then, the malnutrition rate in the village has significantly decreased, school attendance has increased, and the mental and financial strain on households has been alleviated. This has given the community a renewed sense of hope and optimism. During Q1, Healing Venezuela provided 10,800 healthy meals to 100 children.

In November 2023, Healing Venezuela launched “Small Steps for a Better Future”, a loan scheme that provides a starting kit for micro-farming to women in Guaraunos. The kit includes chicks, medicines, and food to grow. The participants contributed by providing chicken meat to the food programme. As these small businesses progress, the village will gradually become independent from external support. During Q1, six women successfully managed to start repaying the loan. To date, the “Small Steps for a Better Future” scheme has already given back 171 kilograms of meat to the food programme and produced income for the participants.

Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) has always been at the core of Healing Venezuela’s mission. Since 2019, Healing Venezuela have installed treatment plants to provide portable water in three large hospital kitchens and smaller ones in three critical areas of the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Caricuao, a populous area of Caracas.

Apart from maintaining the treatment plants, Healing Venezuela also upgraded facilities whenever needed. During Q1, they extended a pipeline from the Hospital Jose Manuel de los Rios's kitchen to the baby bottle preparation room to make it safer and more hygienic for mothers to prepare food for infants. During Q1, approximately 60,000 litres of portable water were produced, benefiting around 5,000 people.

During Q1, the doctors with Healing Venezuela sponsorship have performed around 33,000 consultations in state hospitals. Helena is one of the junior doctors whom Healing Venezuela has supported over the last five years to complete their education: