Pandemic response · Digital solidarity · Venezuela · Colombia · Peru
When Instagram became a lifeline: “En búsqueda de un ángel” connected 50 pandemic cases with urgent help
Every evening, a screen became a meeting place. Families described an urgent need, artists and public figures amplified their voices, and people watching from different parts of the world stepped forward to become the “angel” a household was searching for.
The project at a glance
GLOBAL — Monday, March 23, 2020. As the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly interrupted work, income and daily life, Fundación Corazones por la Vida and its president, Venezuelan singer Román EL RO, launched “En búsqueda de un ángel”—“In Search of an Angel”—a live digital humanitarian initiative designed to connect families facing immediate hardship with people willing to help.
The concept was direct and deeply personal. Every evening from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Román opened an Instagram Live broadcast. Families in Venezuela, Colombia and Peru joined or contacted the project to explain what they were facing: rent they could no longer pay, an empty pantry, medicines they could not afford or another urgent household need created or intensified by the pandemic.
Listen to the case. Verify the need. Find an angel. Deliver assistance.
26 days of connection and response
From the first case to number 50
A public conversation that produced private relief
The broadcasts did more than tell stories. They created a real-time bridge between a verified need and a person, company or public figure prepared to respond. Support was coordinated for rent payments, groceries, food, medicines and essential expenses. Local collaborators then helped turn pledges made online into practical assistance inside people’s homes.
From the first case on Monday, March 23, through case number 50 on Friday, April 17, 2020, the project maintained a case-by-case humanitarian response. Broadcasts documented on March 30, March 31 and April 1 illustrate the continuity of a campaign that remained active during the most uncertain opening weeks of the pandemic.
In one of the campaign’s most significant days, rent assistance was completed for 18 families, helping them remain in—or return to—stable housing at a moment when the loss of a home could deepen an already devastating emergency.
Artists, athletes and creators answered the call
The project grew because recognized voices chose to join the conversation. Major League Baseball players Salvador Pérez and Alcides Escobar, music producer Maffio, the creators behind A tu edad vas a seguir, as well as other artists, producers, influencers and public personalities participated in broadcasts or helped amplify the appeals.
Their presence brought visibility, but the purpose remained focused on the families. Each guest helped expand the network, introduce a case to new audiences and demonstrate that influence can become a form of service when it is directed toward an urgent human need.
How each case moved from a message to assistance
Request
A family contacted the project through Instagram and described an urgent need.
Listen
The case was presented with dignity during the two-hour live broadcast.
Connect
An artist, company, donor or viewer stepped forward as the family’s “angel.”
Respond
Support was coordinated for housing, food, medicine or another essential need.
From the screen to the family table
The project’s success was measured in concrete outcomes: rent paid before a household lost its home, a market purchase completed when food had run out, medicine obtained during a period of restricted movement, and families reassured that they had not been forgotten.
Images preserved by the foundation document live conversations, food purchases and community deliveries during the earliest pandemic restrictions. They also reveal the project’s central achievement: technology reduced distance, but compassion completed the journey.
Campaign archive
Connection became action
A lasting lesson
Humanitarian response can begin with a conversation.
“En búsqueda de un ángel” showed that digital platforms can be more than places for entertainment. During an unprecedented crisis, Instagram became a listening room, a verification channel, a public appeal and a pathway to immediate relief across Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.
Between March 23 and April 17, 2020, fifty urgent cases became fifty opportunities to act. The project remains part of Fundación Corazones por la Vida’s history because it united empathy, visibility and accountability around a simple promise: when a family asks for help, someone should be willing to listen—and act.
The foundation’s historical package excludes bank receipts, identity documents, account numbers and other sensitive records. The public gallery is limited to campaign branding, live-broadcast images and general assistance photographs.
Become someone’s reason to hope
