CITGO Private Foundation to Award Special Grants Supporting COVID-19 Efforts in Venezuela

HOUSTON, March 26, 2020 /3BL Media/ - The Simón Bolívar Foundation Inc. (SBF), the non-profit, private foundation of CITGO Petroleum Corporation, is launching a special round of its small grants program to help alleviate the damaging effects of the COVID-19 crisis in Venezuela. Non-profit organizations working in Venezuela are critical right now, given the heightened risk the country’s population faces with a fast deteriorating public health system.

Initiated in October 2019, the small grants program aims to strengthen nonprofit organizations that are providing much-needed assistance inside Venezuela and to Venezuelan refugees in Latin America due to the complex humanitarian crisis the country is experiencing.

According to Simón Bolívar Foundation President Mariela Poleo, the objective of this special round of grants is "to add to the efforts mitigating the Coronavirus pandemic effects in countries as vulnerable as Venezuela.”

In total, the program will donate at least $200,000. Funds will be distributed among winning grantees selected by an impartial and qualified committee that will evaluate applications against an established rubric. 

Awarded funds will be assigned to projects that help strengthen access to medicines and preventive health services for the most vulnerable, work to improve the nutrition of Venezuelan mothers and children, and improve the professional capabilities of those tasked with caring for patients, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The application process begins on March 26, 2020, and grantees will be selected and notified in early May 2020. For more information about the Simón Bolívar Foundation and this program, including how to apply for a small grant, visit http://www.simonbolivarfoundation.org

About the Simón Bolivar Foundation

The Simón Bolívar Foundation is the 501(c)(3) non-profit, private foundation of CITGO Petroleum Corporation. The Foundation supports initiatives, leverages existing resources and invests in organizations to meet the immediate and long-term health needs of the most vulnerable individuals particularly in and from Venezuela with a special focus on the health and well-being of children and their mothers. 

About CITGO 
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, CITGO Petroleum Corporation is a recognized leader in the refining industry with a well-known brand. CITGO operates three refineries located in Corpus Christi, Texas; Lake Charles, La.; and Lemont, Ill., and wholly and/or jointly owns 48 terminals, nine pipelines and three lubricants blending and packaging plants. With approximately 3,400 employees and a combined crude capacity of approximately 769,000 barrels-per-day (bpd), CITGO is ranked as the fifth-largest, and one of the most complex independent refiners in the United States. CITGO transports and markets transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products and supplies a network of approximately 4,700 locally owned and operated branded retail outlets in 30 states and the District of Columbia. CITGO Petroleum Corporation is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com.

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