Venezuela Relief

To support this project, click the “Give” button on the right, then after selecting your portal (within or outside of the USA), look for “Venezuela Relief Project”.

Barquisimeto Church Property Rescue      Amount needed: $30,000

The Barquisimeto church is at risk of being confiscated! A few years ago, the government of Venezuela removed the “non-profit” designation for buildings. As a result, all buildings are assessed property taxes. Since the economy has “dollarized”, the tax assessment is now linked to the dollar. If the taxes are not paid within a period of time (usually 5 years), then the building can be confiscated. My friends in Venezuela report that many churches have lost their buildings due to delinquent taxes.

The Lutheran church in Venezuela is struggling financially, as we can all imagine. Several years of back taxes are owed! Additionally, due to the challenging economic environment, the building has fallen into disrepair – especially the roof. Additional funds are needed to make repairs to the roof and to other areas of the building.

 

Medicine for Venezuela

We started our Venezuela Relief Project in 2016 by sending funds to help people purchase food. That project went very well, praise God! But the, an even more urgent need emerged: Medications.

During the initial years (2017-2020), the Medicine project was a virtual life-line because medicine ceased to be available in the country. Many pharmaceutical companies ceased operations in Venezuela, and local pharmacies had bare shelves. Today, medicine is once again available but at high prices and in dollars! A person who is required to take daily medication for high blood pressure, for example, will need to pay 80% of their monthly salary for that one medication alone!

From Chile, we are able to purchase medicine and ship it to those who need it in Venezuela! Here’s how it works:

1. Requests for medicine are coordinated through the Lutheran congregations in Venezuela.

2. Recipients can choose from a list of 18 common medications (up to three medications per patient). Each of those medicines are

available in Chile without a prescription.

3. Additionally, we send a supply of 7 common medications to each church for them to distribute locally.

4. With your donations, medicines are purchased in Chile with the cooperation of a local pharmacy.

5. Volunteers at our Santiago mission congregation collate the orders and prepare each congregation’s shipment.

Medicine is shipped using a globally-known shipping company, and then is unpacked and sorted for distribution to the beneficiaries.

In the first year of the project (2017), we shipped a month’s supply of medicine to 333 patients. In our most recent shipment (Jan/Feb 2022), we have shipped a month’s supply of medicine to over 1055 patients! That was a whopping total of over 105,000 pills! The average cost per patient for a month’s supply is about $17 (including shipping)!

We pray that we can make a difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ in Venezuela, for as long as the crisis lasts!

 

What is going on in Venezuela?

What would you do if the shelves in your grocery store or pharmacy only sold produce that you could not afford? Or if you had to stand in line for 8 hours or more, just to buy two small sacks of flour? Our Lutheran brothers and sisters in Venezuela are struggling, and many simply do not have enough to eat.

What is going on?

The country of Venezuela has been in a crisis since at least 2016.  When we started the Venezuela Relief project in 2016, inflation was at about 700%. In 2018 it hit a whopping 130,000 percent! Since then, the hyper-inflation has been slowly backing down: 9,600% in 2019; 3,000% in 2020; and 700% in 2021. Economists project inflation of 150 – 200% in 2022. Today in Venezuela, the average monthly wage covers about 8% of basic monthly needs. In real terms, this means that a family of 4 in Venezuela with one wage-earner can purchase food for only 5 days!   (source: CENDA).

Food for Venezuela

Our very first Venezuela Relief project was to help our Lutheran congregations could purchase food for their members. You can read all reports from people who benefited here.

 

To support this project, click here or click the “Give” button on this page, then after selecting your portal (within or outside of the USA), look for “Venezuela Relief Project”.

About the Lutheran Church of Venezuela

The Iglesia Luterana de Venezuela (Lutheran Church of Venezuela) was founded in the early 1950’s. Since its inception, Lutheran Hour Ministries has been a valued ministry partner. The ILV has 15 congregations, with about 1000 members in total, and three Christian day schools.