Humanitarian Help for Venezuela

Dear friends and family,

As most of you may know, Venezuela is going through the biggest crisis in the modern history of the country. I am not here to explain the causes or blame anyone; the purpose of this is to explain the extreme situation Venezuelan families are currently facing , and do something about it.  

The first and most critical is the lack of food and basic goods. People are incapable to find basic goods like rice, pasta, cooking oil, soap, toilet paper, etc., And if they find some, they have to line up from 4 am to maybe 2 or 3 pm without even knowing if they are going to be able to get something. The other option is to buy food in the black market which is extremely expensive. -please see the following links for reference- http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/06/20/482782426/as-food-crisis-worsens-venezuelans-loot-almost-empty-stores

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/03/news/economy/venezuela-food-prices/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/apr/16/venezuela-economy-black-market-milk-and-toilet-paper

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-01-06/venezuelas-military-has-turned-its-food-crisis-racket-and-its-profiting-people -

People have lost in average 8 Kg of weight and the rate of child mortality increased by 30% (see links below)-

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/09/venezuela-public-health-crisis-infant-mortality-maternal-malaria -

And that’s not all, there is a severe lack of medicines, from the basics (acetaminophen, advil, etc.) to cancer treatment and insulin for diabetic people  -(see links for reference)-

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/04/06/venezuelan-cancer-patients-protest-painful-side-effects-of-low-quality-cuban-drugs/

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-health-idUSKCN0QW2DH20150827

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/world/americas/dying-infants-and-no-medicine-inside-venezuelas-failing-hospitals.html -

Because of this, I started to raise money for some very poor families in Venezuela, I have been able to feed 12 families twice (see a couple of them in the pictures), with the generous help of my husband’s family (1.5 months of food so far). But of course, it is not enough, those families I selected have very severe economic deficiencies: many kids, elderly people or just struggling people which is pretty much like 90% of Venezuela’s population.

As you can see in the picture I was able to provide basic food and goods like rice, pasta, milk, beef, chicken, eggs, soap, corn flour and beans. Depending on the amount of people and the age of the children we distributed it. In some cases I have sent non prescription drugs like advil, tylenol, vitamins, etc. I have many more pictures I’ll be happy to share if asked.

I buy the food in a webpage based in Miami, own by Venezuelan people (mimercadoexpress.com). I contacted them to ask for support and they totally agreed, they gave me free shipping to two venezuelan cities, then my family took the responsibility to distribute and deliver. We also have other local providers like tugentevenezuela.com.

I am here to tell you that, Venezuelan people need us,  we need your help! it doesn’t matter how small it is (a bag of rice is just 2 dollars and it is so important for them), it would make a world of difference for those people.

Please feel free to contact me if you need any information or want to ask any question.

God Bless You!

Sandra Coles

P.S. other information about Venezuelan crisis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwhBKqfegeA

http://victimsofcommunism.org/open-letter-to-american-media-ga/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItNP1jYil1QIVxYKzCh0WoAXWEAAYASAAEgKAP_D_BwE

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/venezuela-protests-maduro-rewrite-constitution-1.4217746

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/world/americas/venezuela-protests-maduro.html


DETAILS:
1- I am Sandra Virginia Granieri Certad (Sandra Virginia Coles now that I'm married), I am from Venezuela but I live in Canada.
2 -I am raising funds for several families in need in Venezuela  (friends, neightbours,some family members, people we know who need help). Just families with many kids or retired people.
3- Me and my family will buy food and basic goods, and we will distribute the goods to every family we can. As we have done before, we distibute the food depending on the amount of people of the family, amount of kids of the specific family and the economical situation they are in. 
4- The withdraws will be used to buy food like rise, pasta, beans, powder milk, etc. and distributed to the people.