The Good Drug Trafficking
By Geometry Global - Bogota
For Fundación Colibrí Brand Programa de Ayuda Humanitaria para Venezuela
Highly Commended in category Direct
In subcategory Not for Profit
Project Description
Many are aware of the Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela, especially in Colombia, its neighboring country, which has seen the problem up close and knows that this situation threatens the lives of many children, women, elderly and people with chronic diseases by not finding medicines, food or medical supplies for hospitals.
Brief: To help, several nonprofit organizations in Colombia have been responsible for rising and sending aid to Venezuela. After the prohibition of the regime of Nicolas Maduro against them, this much-needed aid has been dammed at the border, accumulating tons of medicines and medical supplies that could have saved thousands of lives.
With borders closed and no diplomatic advances in sight, Colombia's dark past had to come to the rescue.
Challenge: Making donations go unnoticed across the Colombia-Venezuela border, in way that is legal and safe around the globe.
Objective: Help NGOs to deliver Humanitarian Aid to the most vulnerable populations in Venezuela that cannot wait for diplomatic solution for their problems.
Brief: To help, several nonprofit organizations in Colombia have been responsible for rising and sending aid to Venezuela. After the prohibition of the regime of Nicolas Maduro against them, this much-needed aid has been dammed at the border, accumulating tons of medicines and medical supplies that could have saved thousands of lives.
With borders closed and no diplomatic advances in sight, Colombia's dark past had to come to the rescue.
Challenge: Making donations go unnoticed across the Colombia-Venezuela border, in way that is legal and safe around the globe.
Objective: Help NGOs to deliver Humanitarian Aid to the most vulnerable populations in Venezuela that cannot wait for diplomatic solution for their problems.
Agency Solution
The Good Drug Trafficking is an alternative service that uses the advice of former smugglers, to deliver medicines and health supplies from Colombia to Venezuela in a safe and legal way.
This time we used Colombia’s dark past experience of smuggling goods through the Venezuelan border for good, creating direct ideas for volunteers and NGOs to solutions that can make Humanitarian Aid get through the border, to save the lives of Venezuelans that cannot wait for a diplomatic solution to the country’s crisis.
Approach: The agency, in partnership with former smugglers and former traffickers, foundations and civil society, came together to ensure that medicines continue to reach Venezuelan families in greatest need.
Target audience: ONGs and Volunteers.
The Good Drug Trafficking is an initiative that gives donations collected in Colombia to foundations in Venezuela, through volunteers who are advised by the same people who have passed all kinds of other drugs across the border in past decades; this time using their experience to do good.
It is an alternative to help all people who cannot wait months for a diplomatic solution to a crisis that has already killed thousands of children, youth, women and men with chronic and treatable diseases.
Call To Action: Do the unthinkable to help save a live.
Implementation: In May 2018, this initiative was launched as a way to help a small foundation in Caracas receive a shipment of four boxes of donations collected in Bogotá.
Timeline: As the tension with Venezuela has been progressively worsening, the needs of this strategy has been necessary for:
Scale:
- Design about 80 travel items, among suitcases, bags and clothing with imperceptible compartments, to avoid the seizure of medicines and medical supplies by border controls.
- Tracing land routes based on the same routes previously used for smuggling from Colombia to Venezuela.
- Generate decoys on social media such as fake news, sightings of drones passing donations across the border, or videos from the jungle showing the passage of donations.
- Call a large volunteer movement of citizens who want to help, contacting Foundations and NGOs via Whatsapp with donations ready to be sent to Venezuela.
No bribes, no violence and no illegal activity was involved in moving aid. Colombia hasn't created a restriction against donations, and in Venezuela's laws doesn't exist a restriction either, just a direct order from Maduro's regime to stop them accusing them to be politically bias.
This aid is not a political movement, is an effort to help patients who cannot wait for a diplomatic solutions, that`s why no political actors were involved in the campaign.
The aid was moved with other goods as food, toilet paper and health supplies. The medicine was storaged in its packagings and with a strict control of expiration dates.
This aid is destined to help NGOs and people helping us in the border are not moving any banned or illegal goods to avoid any trouble with Venezuelan authorities.
People moving the aid were not drug traffickers, were volunteers.
The Colombia-Venezuela border is not as hermetic as other International borders, there hardly a control. There are towns divided by creeks. So this volunteers work in their daily basis moving goods (like onions, milk, toilet paper, medicines, ect) from Colombia to Venezuela. They were paid around USD$0,50 per trip.
There are providers like https://officeboyexpress.com.co/site/services/ that charged Fundación Colombia COP$25.000 (USD$8) per kilo of medicines from Bogotá to Caracas in private planes. A box full of medicines and health supplies weights around 15 kilos, for a cost of approximately USD$120. Now we are currently launching a campaign to raise money for this logistics because Fundación Colibrí has over 300 new boxes of medicines raised in Medellín and Bogotá.
This time we used Colombia’s dark past experience of smuggling goods through the Venezuelan border for good, creating direct ideas for volunteers and NGOs to solutions that can make Humanitarian Aid get through the border, to save the lives of Venezuelans that cannot wait for a diplomatic solution to the country’s crisis.
Approach: The agency, in partnership with former smugglers and former traffickers, foundations and civil society, came together to ensure that medicines continue to reach Venezuelan families in greatest need.
Target audience: ONGs and Volunteers.
The Good Drug Trafficking is an initiative that gives donations collected in Colombia to foundations in Venezuela, through volunteers who are advised by the same people who have passed all kinds of other drugs across the border in past decades; this time using their experience to do good.
It is an alternative to help all people who cannot wait months for a diplomatic solution to a crisis that has already killed thousands of children, youth, women and men with chronic and treatable diseases.
Call To Action: Do the unthinkable to help save a live.
Implementation: In May 2018, this initiative was launched as a way to help a small foundation in Caracas receive a shipment of four boxes of donations collected in Bogotá.
Timeline: As the tension with Venezuela has been progressively worsening, the needs of this strategy has been necessary for:
Scale:
- Design about 80 travel items, among suitcases, bags and clothing with imperceptible compartments, to avoid the seizure of medicines and medical supplies by border controls.
- Tracing land routes based on the same routes previously used for smuggling from Colombia to Venezuela.
- Generate decoys on social media such as fake news, sightings of drones passing donations across the border, or videos from the jungle showing the passage of donations.
- Call a large volunteer movement of citizens who want to help, contacting Foundations and NGOs via Whatsapp with donations ready to be sent to Venezuela.
No bribes, no violence and no illegal activity was involved in moving aid. Colombia hasn't created a restriction against donations, and in Venezuela's laws doesn't exist a restriction either, just a direct order from Maduro's regime to stop them accusing them to be politically bias.
This aid is not a political movement, is an effort to help patients who cannot wait for a diplomatic solutions, that`s why no political actors were involved in the campaign.
The aid was moved with other goods as food, toilet paper and health supplies. The medicine was storaged in its packagings and with a strict control of expiration dates.
This aid is destined to help NGOs and people helping us in the border are not moving any banned or illegal goods to avoid any trouble with Venezuelan authorities.
People moving the aid were not drug traffickers, were volunteers.
The Colombia-Venezuela border is not as hermetic as other International borders, there hardly a control. There are towns divided by creeks. So this volunteers work in their daily basis moving goods (like onions, milk, toilet paper, medicines, ect) from Colombia to Venezuela. They were paid around USD$0,50 per trip.
There are providers like https://officeboyexpress.com.co/site/services/ that charged Fundación Colombia COP$25.000 (USD$8) per kilo of medicines from Bogotá to Caracas in private planes. A box full of medicines and health supplies weights around 15 kilos, for a cost of approximately USD$120. Now we are currently launching a campaign to raise money for this logistics because Fundación Colibrí has over 300 new boxes of medicines raised in Medellín and Bogotá.