Helping poor Venezuelans learn that health is a community responsibility is one of hundreds of ways in which Medical Mission Sisters around the world try to be a healing presence to those in need today.

Sister Juanita Ortega, a nurse who has served in Venezuela for 53 years, has seen wonderful results from her efforts in the poor barrios of Barquisimeto. "It began in 1974 via the organization of a Health Cooperative with out-patient services provided in a trailer," she recalls. "In a short time, a small group of women began to meet to form a Health Committee, in an effort to create awareness that health is a community responsibility." As the number of committees grew, they provided a way for people to become organized in struggling for their right to public services, medical care, clean water, and nutrition.

A group of professionals and neighborhood residents who had been active with the committees formed an organization called PECES (Program for Community Education in Health). PECES identified its main objective: to strengthen the organized participation of the communities in their just struggle for health as an inalienable right…with the methodological tools and knowledge necessary for the development of the process.