PAMPLONA, Columbia – Operation Blessing has provided relief to millions of people in 90 different countries and all 50 of the United States over the past 41 years. Founded in 1978 by Pat Robertson, the faith-based NGO provides aid in areas where people’s lives are threatened by poverty, disasters, and persecution.

Like similar faith-based organizations (FBO), such as Samaritan’s Purse and Gospel for Asia, Operation Blessing teams work to provide safe drinking water, food, clothing, and health and medical care. One arm of the ministry is working curtail the plague of human trafficking. Another reaches out to provide microenterprise opportunities for families and communities via skills training, small business loans, and construction projects.

The current crisis in Venezuela has become one of the worst in the world in terms of meeting the needs of millions of Venezuelan refugees attempting to escape their homeland where, according to one young mother, “we have no resources, no medicine; everyone needs help.”

Diego Traverso, director of international relief for Operation Blessing, recently visited with Venezuelan refugees trying to make their way to refugee camps outside of Bogota, Columbia. The purpose of his trip was to lead an advance team to assess the needs and determine the most effective way Operation Blessing can provide essential aid. He observed that their desperation was getting so intense that he could almost smell it.

People are drinking water from the rivers, contaminated, polluted. . . The physical needs are easy to see. They need socks, better shoes, diapers for their babies and a place to rest. But those are all just symptoms of their biggest need – the love of Jesus.

A CBN News team interviewed a family that was now living on the streets in Pamplona after having ridden a bus for two days. Although their situation was heart-wrenching, thousands of others are making the long journey over dangerous mountain terrain on foot because they are unable to afford the $20 needed for the bus ride.

Missions Box News has been providing updates on the Venezuelan refugee crisis for more than two years, witnessing to the declining conditions as millions desperately seek help outside the country.

We suggest reading some of our previous articles to gain a more complete understanding of the plight of the Venezuelan people.

• Venezuela keeping babies in cardboard boxes, February 14, 2017
• Only 1/3 of Venezuelans Eat One or Two Meals Per Day. April 20, 2017
• Lack of Medicine in Venezuela Nearing Catastrophe, August 3, 2017
• Venezuelan Situation: “The Biggest Crisis in The Hemisphere”, November 27, 2018
• Venezuela Needs Divine Intervention, March 12, 2019

To read more news on the Crisis of Venezuelan Refugees on Missions Box, go here.