Wednesday, May 31, 2023
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home News World News

GoFundMe or death: Venezuelans seek online help in Covid pandemic

AFPbyAFP
April 8, 2021, 12:00 pm
in World News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

Four family members with Covid-19, zero savings and no relief from Venezuela's collapsed public health system: Gabriela Rodriguez saw no option but to seek help from crowdfunding.

She is one of a growing number of people in the inflation and sanctions-hammered country looking online for assistance on sites such as GoFundMe. 

"This has been a nightmare, a horror," 31-year-old Rodriguez told AFP.  

Having lost her job at a travel agency due to the pandemic, and making ends meet on $80 per month from a temporary job as a social media administrator, she quickly found herself responsible for her mother, 59, her grandparents aged 67 and 80 and a cousin, 52, all brought low by Covid-19.

Caring for them at home due to a shortage of hospital beds, she soon found herself in need of $300 per day just to pay for her family members' medicines. 

She pawned her car, but this was not enough.

Rodriguez put a call out on GoFundMe for $5,000, and received $1,075 from donors — money without which "I would be burying my mother now," Rodriguez said with a quivering voice.

Like the rest of South America, Venezuela is battling a harsh new pandemic wave fueled, authorities say, by more infectious virus variants from Brazil. 

Officially, the country has had 165,000 cases and nearly 1,700 deaths, but observer groups such as Human Rights Watch question the numbers, which they say are likely vastly underestimated. 

–  'Help my grandmother' –

Finding a bed in a public hospital grows more difficult by the day, and the prices in private clinics — from $1,000 to $3,000 per day — are out of reach for most in this recession-hit country with a minimum wage of less than one dollar a month.

On the GoFundMe site there are more than 2,300 appeals for all types of support, mainly for money to buy medicine and oxygen tanks from Venezuelans largely fighting the epidemic on their own.

A well-known singer and even a politician are on the site asking for help with hospital fees, while a television presenter, also registered on the site, has since died.

"Help me to save my Mom's life," reads one of the entries. "Help my grandmother get through Covid-19," states another.

"I know that nobody has enough money… I would be very grateful if you could help with a donation, no matter how small," Rodriguez wrote in hers.

Maria Angelina Castillo went on GoFundMe last year, when Venezuela was in pandemic lockdown, looking for help to pay for cancer treatment at a time hospitals were overrun with coronavirus patients. 

"There is no other way. It is GoFundMe or die," she said.

– Clinics are full –

Jaime Lorenzo of the NGO Medicos Unidos Venezuela told AFP that demand for hospital beds was far outstripping supply.

"The collapse is massive," he said.

And Mauro Zambrano, a union leader, said "clinics are completely full, as are hospitals" in the capital Caracas.

The government aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its 30 million inhabitants this year, but has so far received fewer than a million doses. These are being given to health workers, teachers and government officials.

Caracas is demanding access to funds blocked abroad due to sanctions against Maduro, to buy more doses from the global Covax vaccine-sharing mechanism.

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza claimed in an interview with AFP that without the sanctions, "we would have been able to buy the 30 million vaccines the country needs three months ago."

Maduro's reelection in 2018 is viewed as fraudulent by much of the international community, who recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's acting president.

Washington has frozen millions of dollars of Venezuelan money in US bank accounts, handing control of the funds to Guaido.

Tags: corona viruscovid19fundsGoFundMeseek helpVenezuelan
ADVERTISEMENT
AFP

AFP

Related Posts

North Korea spy satellite crashes into sea

byAFP
May 31, 2023, 6:00 pm
0
8
North Korea spy satellite crashes into sea

North Korea attempted to launch a spy satellite Wednesday but it crashed into the sea after a rocket failure, with...

Read more

High winds halt Spanish rocket launch

byAFP
May 31, 2023, 5:00 pm
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

Paris, France - The maiden flight of the Spanish-built Miura 1 rocket was cancelled Wednesday due to high winds, startup PLD...

Read more

North Korea spy satellite crashes into sea, Seoul salvages wreckage

byAFP
May 31, 2023, 4:48 pm
0
8
Taliban govt resumes issuing Afghan passports in Kabul

Seoul, South Korea - North Korea attempted to launch a spy satellite Wednesday but it crashed into the sea after a...

Read more

Heatwave prompts Hanoi to reduce street lights as power cuts loom

byAFP
May 31, 2023, 4:00 pm
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

Hanoi, Vietnam - Faced with record-breaking heat, Vietnam's capital Hanoi has turned off some street lights to save electricity as demand...

Read more

Gold miners clash with soldiers in Ghana

byAFP
May 31, 2023, 1:00 pm
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

Accra, Ghana - Heavily armed soldiers fired shots to disperse protesters on Tuesday in the gold mining town of Obuasi in...

Read more

Sudan truce extension brings renewed fighting, little aid

byAFP
May 31, 2023, 12:00 pm
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

Khartoum, Sudan - Fighting flared again in Sudan on Tuesday despite the latest ceasefire pledges of the two warring generals, meant...

Read more

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • Poe supports law on bike safety for passengers
  • Tax appeals court junks petition on Ressa case
  • Lawmaker urges support for HB on displaced Pinoys
  • PH, Eurojust forge pact vs. online sex abuse
  • Fuel price discounts
  • BSP expects inflation to fall further in May
  • DOTr, Sumitomo sign P7.38-b deal to rehabilitate MRT 3
  • DBP appeals proposed merger with LandBank

Advertisement

Latest News

BSP expects inflation to fall further in May

byJulito G. Rada
May 31, 2023, 9:55 pm
0
8
BSP readies big interest rate hike this month

Inflation likely eased further to as low as 5.8 percent in May from 6.6 percent in April following the rollback...

Read more

DOTr, Sumitomo sign P7.38-b deal to rehabilitate MRT 3

byDarwin G. Amojelar
May 31, 2023, 9:50 pm
0
8
MRT-7 seen to start partial operations in 2022

The Department of Transportation said Wednesday it signed a P7.38-billion contract with Sumitomo Corp. for the rehabilitation and maintenance of...

Read more

DBP appeals proposed merger with LandBank

byJulito G. Rada
May 31, 2023, 9:45 pm
0
8

State-run Development Bank of the Philippines said Wednesday it will continue to exhaust available remedies under existing laws on its...

Read more

CPG buys Mitsubishi’s stake in PHirst Park Homes

byJenniffer B. Austria
May 31, 2023, 9:40 pm
0
8
Century Properties reports strong sales

Century Properties Group Inc. said Wednesday it is buying out Mistubishi Corp.’s 40-percent stake in affordable housing joint venture for...

Read more

ERC asks 25 electric co-ops on pass-through fuel costs

byAlena Mae S. Flores
May 31, 2023, 9:35 pm
0
8
ERC issues resolution lifting moratorium on issuance of licenses to retail electricity suppliers

The Energy Regulatory Commission said Wednesday it issued 33 show cause orders directing 25 electric cooperatives and three private distribution...

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App