80% of Venezuelans live in poverty. 50% in extreme poverty. A crisis of this magnitude — compounded by an oil price collapse, hyperinflation, and the near-complete shutdown of local production — has left entire families without food, medicine, or hope.
How It Got This Bad
Venezuela's economic crisis did not happen overnight. The dramatic drop in global oil prices devastated the country's primary source of national income, triggering a cascading collapse of public services, food supply chains, and healthcare infrastructure. Local production of basic goods has essentially stopped. Import capacity has been slashed to near zero.
What was once a relatively prosperous country by regional standards has become a place where parents search for food in garbage bins, where children are too hungry to concentrate in school, and where a simple infection can be fatal because antibiotics have disappeared from pharmacy shelves.
Who Is Most Affected
The communities hit hardest are those that were already the most vulnerable — low-income families, the elderly living alone, children, and people with chronic health conditions who can no longer access the medications they need to survive.
These are not statistics. They are grandmothers who raised their families and now depend on neighbors to eat. They are children whose parents send them to bed hungry. They are young people who had plans and dreams, now suspended in crisis.
Venezuela by the Numbers
How the Nora Deutsch Foundation Is Helping
We partner with trusted local organizations and businesses in Venezuela to convert donations into food packages, medicines, and basic supplies — and distribute them directly to families in need. There are no middlemen. There is no waste. Your dollar goes directly to the person who needs it.
Through this network, we are able to:
- Source food from local suppliers at better-than-retail rates
- Deliver essential medicines including antibiotics and basic treatments
- Reach communities that are difficult for larger organizations to access
- Respond quickly, without bureaucratic delays
Help a family in Venezuela today
Your donation reaches them within days through our local partner network.