Venezuela 2020 © Carlos Becerra/MSF

Venezuela

In Venezuela, where hospitals across the country lack staff, supplies, and basic services, we rehabilitate facilities and provide general and specialist health care.

News update

Reaching remote Indigenous communities in need of health care in Venezuela

Since July 2022, teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have been working alongside local authorities to bring basic health care to isolated communities across Delta Amacuro state in Venezuela. Access is a challenge in itself: the state spans almost 25,000 square miles and is heavily forested. Most Indigenous communities live scattered along the banks of the Orinoco River, which is the region’s main highway. MSF teams must travel by motorboat for at least six hours from the state capital, Tucupita, to reach health clinics in order to provide care, while patients often have to paddle by canoe for hours or even days to see a doctor.

Our work in

In Venezuela, where hospitals across the country lack staff, supplies, and basic services, we rehabilitate facilities and provide general and specialist health care.

Sexual and reproductive health control in Bolívar

What's happening in Venezuela?

As the political and economic crisis continues to leave thousands of Venezuelans without access to medical care, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) scaled up support to medical facilities across the country in 2022.

In Venezuela, many hospitals are struggling to function, with insufficient staff, drugs, supplies, and medical equipment, and lack access to basic services such as water. In 2022, MSF teams supported the provision of care in 29 public health facilities in five states—Amazonas, Anzoátegui, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro, and Táchira—and in the capital, Caracas.

Access to healthcare in vulnerable communities of Anzoátegui

How we're helping in Venezuela

A large part of our work has focused on strengthening hospital and health post infrastructure, specifically electricity supply, waste management, and water and sanitation. In addition, we provided medicines and medical supplies, as well as training regarding their appropriate use.

Our principal objective was to improve general and specialist medical services in areas such as emergency care, COVID-19 triage, sexual and reproductive health, vaccinations, and treatment for victims of sexual violence. Health promotion and mental health support were also important components of our projects.

In Anzoátegui and Bolívar states, we continued working to reduce the high incidence of malaria, focusing on early diagnosis and treatment, vector control, and health promotion. These interventions led to a significant reduction in cases compared to previous years.

In July 2022, we opened a new project in Delta Amacuro—a difficult-to-access region crossed by many rivers and waterways—with the aim of bringing general health care to the remote, mainly indigenous, communities living there.

Meanwhile, we closed our projects in Caracas and Táchira after achieving our objectives to design and implement triage systems for patients with COVID-19 in health facilities, increase outpatient consultation capacity, and integrate a mental health approach to medical consultations. In Táchira, we also ran community-based health education sessions and reinforced referral systems.

How we're helping

1,580

Malaria cases treated

1,500

Individual mental health consultations

27,900

Consultations for contraceptive services

170

People treated for sexual violence

*Data from MSF International Activity Report 2022

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How you can help

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