Cinzia De Santis,
Founder Healing Venezuela
Who we are?
Venezuela has suffered a precipitous decline in recent years. There are drastic shortages of food
and medicines, and diseases such as diphtheria and malaria are re-emerging. According to The
Economist, 5,000 Venezuelans are leaving the country every day, creating Latin America’s worst ever
refugee crisis.
Healing Venezuela is a UK registered run only by volunteers. We started collecting medical supplies
discarded by surgeries and hospitals in England (and later Spain), allowing us to run a low-cost
operation as well as reducing medical wastage. Healing Venezuela has managed to get all its
shipments to their final destinations. We work with local NGOs and we have a doctor on the ground
who audits and verifies that our projects are run accordingly to our standards.
What we do?
In the past years, Healing Venezuela we shipped more than 10 tons of medical supplies including:
- saws and sutures for an orthopaedic hospital for children
- diabetic strips for children with type1 Diabetes
- coils to prevent pregnancy
We also:
- paid for High-spec HIV and cancer tests for 103 patients
- funded an HIV resistance research project for 45 patients
- installed a water treatment plant in the JM de los Rios (children’s hospital)
- delivered stress management programmes to more than 1,000 patients, nurses, doctors and
children
- are giving a monthly grant to 100 students on the condition that they will stay in the country for 2
years.
- are sponsoring a training programme for nurses in a rural area of Venezuela.
- we are feeding 50 nursery school children at risk of malnutrition
How can you help?
- With €10 you can give breakfast and lunch to a child for one month
- With €20 you can send 1kg of medical supplies
- With €50 you can sponsor 3 medical students for one month
- With €100 you can deliver two stress management workshops to help children in distress
Our website is: www.healingvenezuela.org and you can keep up to date on our social media.
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