There is no official data available, but it is estimated that about seven thousand people in Venezuela are bitten by a snake each year. Aware of the nationwide shortage of snake antivenom, that is, the anti-venom treatment for snakebites, Priest Johnny Arias came up with the idea of creating an antivenom bank funded by his own community.

On April 15, 2020, residents of Churuguara town, a two-hour drive from Coro, state of Falcón, took to the streets to protest over gasoline shortages. They were repelled with tear gas. Edgar Flores, a 30-year-old lawyer and psychiatric patient, was among them. Several days later, law enforcement officials broke into his house and took him away.

For years, Nora dedicated herself to giving private lessons in physics, chemistry, mathematics and English to the young people of her community in Carúpano, state of Sucre, including Zoila Hernández’s kids.

Psychologist Gloria Pino —very tall and very thin, like no one else in her family— lived in pain and with fatigue and a pounding heart. She consulted with many doctors, but none would arrive at an accurate diagnosis. Until one doctor took her time to study her medical history thoroughly. That was the day Gloria first heard about Marfan syndrome, a rare disease that affects one in five thousand people.

The loss of a trove of scientific documents —and the risk that may others could meet the same fate— led Pablo Emilio Colmenares and a group of specialists to create a digital repository with more than 75,000 titles related to Lake Maracaibo and its basin. They were driven by the conviction that if memory is preserved, the future can change.

Ten months after having migrated to Perú, she received the news that the woman who raised her had died in Caracas. From that moment on, she has made sure that her grandparents, who have had to overcome the hurdles imposed by an ever-worsening economic crisis, are doing well. At night, Pierina Sora prays to God that she will soon be reunited with them.

This story takes place in one of the so-called “Peace Zones”, which are designated areas that cannot be entered by state security forces as long as the gangs operating there agree not to engage in criminal activities.

Gerardo is a medical doctor and he knows very well what Alzheimer’s does to people’s lives. That is why, when his mother was diagnosed with the disease, he moved in to be by her side and devoted himself to her care, fearing she would forget about him.

As much as they tried to avoid it, they eventually had no choice but to take Néstor Comellas to the Antonio Patricio de Alcalá University Hospital in Cumaná, state of Sucre, Venezuela, to receive treatment for the cancer he had been diagnosed.

Even before starting med school, Lourdes Delgado had an interest in tropical medicine. Then, as a medical student, she devised a program to train “citizen scientists”, who report to her on the places where they find chipos, the vector that spreads Chagas disease.