Chamos Health Programmes for Children in Venezuela

The main objective of this project is to expand the healthcare impact and provide better quality of medical and dental care to rural communities in need. 

As we informed in our last report, we had to postpone the date for this trip due to the major power failure Venezuela experienced, and the consequences it brought to the population. The good news is that the team of medical and dental professionals are now ready to travel to Mérida on the 14th of Septemeber. 

Approximately 40 volunteers from "Proyecto Mayú" will travel over 600 kms by land and stay for a week in the Apartaderos community in Mérida to offer quality medical, dental and psychological care to as many as possible. Internal medicine, Paediatrics, Gynaecology, Parasitology, Bionalysis are some of the specialties that will allow the team to address the precarious health situation that affects this community. 

The medical team will lead several community workshops related to medical topics and hygiene. Furthermore, the crew will have a psychology team who will dictate a number of workshops covering subjects like: sexual education, immigration grief, domestic violence, and others. 

We have also donated different types of medicines like contraceptives, baby formula, analgesics and others that are needed by the medical team for this mission. We have also sent a LifeStraw Mission water filter to Mayú to be used in their missions. They will use it for the first time in Mérida. The LifeStraw Mission is a gravity powered system that purifies water, making contaminated water safe to drink by removing bacteria, parasites, microplastics and viruses. In addition, we have provided the team with water purification tablets to distribute amongst the people to be used in case of water shortages. 

Major power failure in Venezuela left much of the country in the dark during the first week of March. Eighteen or more  states in the country were affected by the outage. Schools and most workplaces were closed and the electricity crisis is far from being resolved. The country, and specially the rural areas, keep facing intermittent shortages since the first blackout. These repeated power failures have led to bigger problems, the most worrying being water shortages across the whole country. 

Due to this water crisis, we have focused much of our efforts on finding solutions to provide clean drinking water to children in underpriviledged situations. We have sent water purification tablets to all of our partner NGO's on the ground. This will provide drinking water to 6000 children for 6 months. 

As a more sustainable and long term solution, we also sent 25 liter water filters from LifeStraw to supply drinking water to our partner NGO's:

- Fundación Amor de las Hermanas de la Caridad

- Jenaro Aguirre

- Fundacioión Carlos Delfino

- Alimenta La Solidaridad

- Alimentando Futuros

- Meals 4 Hope

- Hogar Bambi

- Fundación Mayu

In total we have sent 26 filters that each will allow to serve 100 people for 3 to 5 years. Most filters have already arrived and we are thrilled and relieved to be contributing towards this sanitary crisis. These filters are specially designed for emergencies and humanitarian work. We sent LifeStraw highest capacity filters which meet the highst requirements of the World Health Organization and the US EPA for removing virtually all viruses, bacteria, parasites and microplastics from water as well as reducing turbidity. 

To attend the medical crisis shortage we have sent over $4,000 supplies to the ICU in JM de los Ríos Children's Hospital. We have concentrated in life-saving medicines that are specific for children in severe health conditions. These medicines are not only scarce in the hospital community but also impossible to source by individuals in regular pharmacies. 

Our Healthcare project organized jointly with Proyecto Mayú stipulated to be held in Merida between the 7th and 14th of September. It will be two days of travel and 5 days of attention to the community.

It will be carried out by 40 medical volunteers, including students, professors and specialists from the Universidad Central de Venezuela.
We are estimating to provide 800 consultations in: Internal medicine, pediatrics, infectology, dentistry, General surgery, Facial Maxillofacial Surgery, Gynecology, obstetrics and Bioanalysis.

In addition, 3 projects will be carried out in the Community School: nutritional Assessment and support of the pediatric population (a study on current nutrition status will be carried out), Potable water filter installation, consultations and Lectures with specialists in psychology.

Links:

• https://www.chamos.org.uk