The Yuana of Venezuela

The Yuana of Venezuela, numbering approximately 1,400 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are described as a small Amazonian people properly called Hodi, also known by the exonym Yuana, isolated until the 1960s and still speaking an unclassified language, living as semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer bands of about 15 people They are an Indigenous people, with Yuana as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the South American Indigenous people cluster of the Latin American and Caribbean Peoples. Their primary religion is Animism. They primarily speak Yuwana.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Yuana

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples
Country: Venezuela
People Cluster: South American Indigenous
Primary Language(s): Yuwana (yau)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 1,400
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG016510
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Pray for the Yuana of Venezuela

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

97%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Yuwana
Language Family:

100%
%
Hodï Speakers

Media Resources in Yuwana:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Yuwana:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Yuwana bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Yuana are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Yuana:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Yuana of Venezuela

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
readMatthew 5:16

Pray that those who are deceived about what brings peace will not settle for any lies they’ve heard about God and will diligently seek Him and be satisfied when they learn the truth about who He is and what He’s done.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
readRomans 10:14

Pray that the gospel will advance among those who don’t know the good news of salvation in Jesus so that they might believe and trust in Jesus.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
read2 Corinthians 5:17

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will understand and experience the truth that in Christ, they are a new creation, and the old has gone and the new has come.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
readIsaiah 43:19

Praise the God who is able to make a way forward, even when it seems impossible. Ask Him to do a new thing among this people group specifically and among the nations, raising up believers to go and share the gospel with individuals and places where it has not flourished before.

Yuana Across Countries (ROP3 - 111102) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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