Be a Super Friend for our children in Venezuela!

Back in July, we reported the challenging days Friends was having given the absence of major grants and that we were working on new partnerships to compensate this situation. Here is both an update on our indicators and the latest great, exciting news:

SHIPMENTS TO VENEZUELA

• 17 shipments to Venezuela, mostly by sea, representing 1,863 cubic feet, which is +13% compared to the entire 2020. This major growth is mainly explained by:

a) Univision Donation Drive: 330 cf containing diapers, formulas, nutritional supplements, etc that arrived in mid July and is already benefiting our children at the pediatric hospital.

b) Orphan Grain Train, a new partner who donated 21 hospital beds with mattresses, 12 manual specialized wheelchairs, and medical supplies. Aprox. 1,100 cubic feet will be delivered within these 2 weeks.

c) Our regular monthly shipments, aprox 40 cf.

• Shipping Expenses to Venezuela, part of our Program Services, are now representing 11% of our total expenses. Each major donation and shipment is carefully assessed, including ROI and is supported by donated space or a major low tariff given by our freight forwarding service partners. As a result, Friends has already saved +$6,000 in shipments.

FINANCIAL METRICS

• Total Monetary Donations went from -75% in MTD July to -67% MTD Sept. Absence of major institutional grants continue affecting us even though individual and digital revenues remain strong yet small in proportion.

• In-kind donations went from -50% to +46% MTD Sept including both Univision and Orphan Grain Train donations mentioned above. Individual donations remain strong and new institutional partnerships are helping us to compensate the absence of grants that allow us to address specific projects and needs, such as specialized medical equipment and supplies that can be costly or needed in very high volumes.

OUR IMPACT - BENEFICIARIES

• Total Pediatric Patients (Jan - Aug): 5,484 little patients assisted directly through Friends at the pediatric hospital under our program. The hospital is reporting 27,267 cases and is not surprised that Venezuela is still dealing with Covid-19 including this "sentinel" hospital.

• +200 health care workers are also supported by Friends on a daily basis, providing them with both PPE and all sort of medical supplies and equipment that unfortunately, in a collapsed and broken health system, are not supplied by corresponding authorities and entities.

• Since late July, 149 women, mostly pregnant and few with just born babies, have received their daily MMS or multiple micronutrients supplements thanks to our partner Vitamin Angels who donated a first batch enough to support +100 women during and after their pregnancy.

• 1,810 students and teaches under our program Alimentando Futuros, continue having remote schooling. Mobile data plans for teacher (so they can send assignments to the students' parents) and school supplies are provided by our program. For those teachers and students under our in-person leveling program, we are also providing them with nutritional meals.

WHAT'S NEXT?

• Panamerican Benefit Gala featuring America Viva! show, this Oct 16 that will allow us to raise significant funds that again, are always needed despite the in-kind donations and institutional partnerships and in the times described, will help us to compensate the absence of major grants.

• New Institutional Partnership and major in-kind donation to be announced and received in the coming days, with a direct impact on the pediatric hospital's needs for medical supplies.

• Giving Season and Giving Tuesday (November 30!) Our last push but most important one of the year, so we can also start 2022 strongly, with the funds to execute concrete projects and our program Alimentando Futuros, that provides daily nutritional meals and can be only covered by monetary contributions. The campaign will start in November to support our project with GlobalGiving.

We finish this report sharing a video and some images that illustrate our efforts and results so far! Enjoy them!

Thank you for your ongoing support, for making possible that thousands of children, heath care workers, and pregnant women under vulnerable conditions receive a wide range of humanitarian aid in ligne with our mission for their health, nutrition and education.

We wanted to give you an update on where we are as we are closing this first half of the year and given the great, encouraging results obtained from our major donation drive, last June 19th, in coordination with Univision Miami and Amor 107.5 FM!

As expressed before, we started the year with very challenging conditions... for instance, lacking major grants and in-kind donations from partners & organizations that are also challenged by the absense of activities to raise funds or minimum inventory levels that prevent them from donating, among other reasons.

Our indicators show Friends being behind but catching up as we are also working very hard to concrete major partnerships:

Shipments to Venezuela:

• 11 as of June, a total of 353 cubic feet, that is only 21% of the 1,647 cf shipped in 2020 that included large shipments of PPE and medical & equipment supplies needed to fight Covid-19.
• Out of the 11 shipments, 4 were by air and justified as Venezuela is very behind in its fight against Covid-19 and certainly lacking vaccines. These air shipments included for example medicines, oxygen concentrators, etc.
• Shipping Expenses then increased and represents 6% of Total Expenses, double the 3% in 2020. 
• Univision's Donation Drive is contributing with 8 pallets or 330 cf of aid (to be shipped in July 3), which will bring our total shipments to 683 cf, that is, 41% of the 1,647 cf of 2020.
• The Univision's drive also raised its own funds for shipping, therefore, our overall shipment expenses remain as described but still under close monitoring.

Financial Metrics:

• Total Monetary Donations is at -75% compared to the same period in 2020, mainly explained by the absence of major grants from NGO or non-profit organizations, that Friends was not fortunate to win again or the grant-maker just did not replicate its grant offer & application this year, as in 2020. 
• In-kind donations is at -50% without Univision Drive. This drop is not coming from individual donors (+241%) but from major organizational donors (-79%) that in 2020 provided with large volumes of medical supplies, packed food, among others.
• Including Univision's drive, our overall in-kind donation indicator improves from -50% to -27% compared to the same period in 2020.

Our Impact - Beneficiaries:

• Total Pediatric Patients (Jan-May): 2,607 little patients assisted through Friends' program, that is -9% and mainly explained by 2 factors: 1) emergency area under "remodeling", which means overall less capacity and less inflow of children that need hopitalization but whose access is through emergency, and 2) Covid-19 still very present, causing fear and specially when the hospital where Friends is present, is a "sentinel" covid-19-dedicated hospital.
• 1,810 children from 4 public schools under our meal program still can't attend school. Our program Alimentando Futuros continues providing mobile data plans for teachers (so they can send assignments), together with meals when working or meeting at the school. Since May, Alimentando Futuros has also implemented a pilot project (Leveling Program) that seeks to reduce a deeper student lag resulting from a poor remote education. This program will be expanded until Sept and starting Aug 1st, will double the number of students to 108.

We remain faithful and continue working very hard to improve our indicators or metrics, that only represent more resources & conditions to continue assisting hundreds of children on a daily basis. Fortunately, for our local team at the pediatric hospital and given the inventory levels and overall resources we provided them with, they have been able to assist all cases that were presented to us. 

We finish this report sharing a video with some images and results from our Univision's Donation Drive! Enjoy it!

Thank you for your support! 

Links:

• Venezuela is collapsing without Covid-19 vaccines
• In Venezuela, Covid-19 Data Is a State Secret, but Citizens...
• UN: Continuing Venezuela exodus & COVID-19 highlights need for..