Venezuela Relief Program “is saving lives”

Venezuela Relief Project is an act of mercy through which medications are sent from Chile to Venezuela, with the aim of supporting patients with chronic illnesses who struggle to afford their treatments.

Deaconess Luz María de Ernst, the national coordinator of this relief plan, once said: “This program is truly saving lives.”

Pastor James Tino, director of Global Lutheran Outreach (GLO) and promoter of the program, may not have imagined that his strategy to provide medical treatments to residents of the Caribbean country would have such an impact, as for a time, many of those assisted were only able to obtain their pills through the packages prepared in Santiago.

 

12 editions completed

This initiative, which began in 2017, has successfully carried out 12 operations, thanks to the financial support of various institutions.

In August 2024, packages arrived in Venezuelan lands: “This operation arrived at a super opportune time due to the situation we are now living in, and knowing that some companies did not allow shipments, GLO was able to do it,” wrote Luz María.

The minimum wage in Venezuela is USD 3.54 per month, while – according to information provided by the Documentation and Social Analysis Center of the Venezuelan Teachers Federation (Cendas-FVM) – a family of five needs an average of USD 542.94 per month to cover the basic food basket.

Most people receive additional compensation on top of their salary. However, this is not enough to cope with the inflation that continues to erode their purchasing power.

Around nineteen congregations that make up the Lutheran Church of Venezuela (Iglesia Luterana de Venezuela, ILV) benefit from this program.

Among those who access the medication are elderly people who were left alone after their children emigrated, as well as single mothers.

In the most recent shipment, more than 73,000 pills were dispatched, fulfilling 811 requests sent from different regions.

 

Volunteering is crucial

This act of mercy has been sustained thanks to the support of the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile (Iglesia Luterana Confesional de Chile, ILC) working in partnership with the ILV.

GLO provides its human and digital resources: requests are received through a form that beneficiaries fill out once they are connected to a contact.

All the logistics are carried out in GLO’s offices in Santiago, where they share space with the “Divine Providence” Lutheran Church (Iglesia Luterana “Divina Providencia”), whose pastor is Adrián Ventura: a Venezuelan GLO missionary who has lived in Chile with his family since 2018.

Local members participate as volunteers in preparing the boxes, while in Venezuela, brothers in faith join in distributing the medications without expecting anything in return.

This program has also been used as a tool for evangelization by including non-congregants among those who benefit.