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.
Between 2016 and 2024, almost 15,000 people have died in Venezuela at the hands of the security forces. Many of the victims were young black or brown people under the age of 30 who lived in the country’s slums. In 2019, some of their mothers banded together to share their grief and keep each other company while at the courts and prosecutors’ offices. The number of Madres Poderosas has just been growing ever since.
Miguel Feijoo began teaching at the College of Architecture of the Central University of Venezuela in 2019. That same year, he had an experience that would significantly change the way he viewed his profession and one that would teach him that the ultimate goal of a university should be to educate and prepare students to become, more than anything, critical citizens. That is why he did not rest until he made sure his students were registered to vote. He himself went with them.
In the labs of the School of Chemistry of Universidad Central de Venezuela, researchers Ray Arteaga and Manuel Fermín used the pseudostem of the plantain plant to create a small sponge capable of absorbing large amounts of crude oil.
In discovering his identity, Juan La Rosa, a member of the Caquetío indigenous group, became an activist.
One day, in early 2018, Keyla, a 14-year-old pregnant girl, arrived at a hospital in Barcelona, in eastern Venezuela. She was all by herself, running a fever and leaking amniotic fluid. As soon as she was performed an ultrasound scan, the doctors knew that her baby had died. Dr. Nathali Arismendi, at the time an OB-GYN trainee, was amongst those who attended to her. Unknowingly, that young patient would teach her a lot.
First, she hid the fact that she had breast cancer. Then, when she could no longer keep it a secret, she refused to undergo chemotherapy treatment. The disease metastasized to other parts of her body. Milagros was confident that she would live to see the day when Kimberly, her only daughter, graduated as a medical doctor.
