MSC World Projects Appeal 2025: Venezuela - Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

MSCs making a difference in Venezuela

From the provision of essential food and medical care to vital educational facilities, MSCs in Venezuela are working to improve the quality of life for vulnerable people living in areas of extreme hardship. Maracaibo and Caracas are just two of the regions that have benefitted greatly from the generosity of our mission friends in the Irish Province.

MSCs in Venezuela are dedicated to making positive changes in the barrios (urban neighbourhoods where the populations are very poor), where families are living in severely overcrowded conditions in tiny homes often located high in the hills. Poverty is rife and living conditions are extremely difficult. There are often seven or eight people to a family, living in “matchbox houses”. Many elderly people are living alone, in precarious positions up hills and mountains where it is very difficult to bring essential provisions and medical equipment. In Maracaibo, MSCs are running soup kitchens that can feed anything up to 200 families at each serving – and there is always a demand for more. People are making their homes using the most basic materials, and are taking what jobs they can find, but work is scarce. The jobs that are available pay very poorly, with even professional people such as teachers earning very little and having to work two jobs in order to simply survive. Many are resorting to desperate measures in order to feed their children, and so a daily meal received from one of our soup kitchens can make all the difference.

MSC World Projects Appeal 2025: Venezuela

CAN YOU HELP US TO FEED HUNGRY FAMILIES IN VENEZUELA?

Working together in hope and friendship

Irish MSCs Fr Tom O’Brien, Fr John Jennings, and Fr Tom Jordan minister across Maracaibo and Caracas, working with local communities to provide spiritual support to those in need, and bring food to nourish the sick and housebound. In addition to our MSC soup kitchens, centres have been set up to facilitate support systems such as Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and to accommodate doctors, dentists, and psychologists to get local people the care they need. A school in Maracaibo, run by our OLSH Sisters, also helps more than 500 local children. Still, there is a great and urgent need for more. “There’s always something, always something more to do and something more to get,” says Fr Tom O’Brien.

MSC World Projects Appeal 2025: Venezuela

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MINISTRY IN VENEZUELA

Thank you from Sr Nancy

Sr Nancy Contreras writes from Venezuela, where donations from our mission friends here in the Irish Province have been making a crucial difference to people suffering with the difficulties of extreme social and political unrest. The parish of Antímano is located in the hills of Caracas, with a population of approximately 168,422. Sr Nancy and her team have been able to help local families with school support, plus care packages of food and essential medication administered by a professional medical team. Many of these families are living with illness, disability, elderly and infirm relatives, and in conditions of severe overcrowding.

“We want to reduce the hunger, pain, and anguish that we see our brothers and sisters living in. We have the opportunity to enter their homes and see their reality more closely, some suffering with the effects of ongoing sicknesses such as diabetes and hypertension. We appreciate all your support and understanding on this shared mission in the Parish of Antímano.”
~ Sr Nancy Contreras

CAN YOU HELP VULNERABLE FAMILIES IN VENEZUELA?