Tag Archive for: Poverty In Venezuela

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The “Happiness Plan” for Children of Venezuela

children in venezuela
In a nation experiencing an economic crisis, the children of Venezuela are suffering. Poverty is on the rise, including an increase in the malnutrition of children due to limited access to resources. Families fleeing to Peru have traveled quite far. Along the way, many have faced discrimination due to their migrant status. UNICEF and Plan International have developed a strategy for aiding children who are experiencing rapid changes in their home lives. They are helping children in Venezuela find a “Happiness Plan.”

Conditions in Venezuela

At one time, Venezuela was part of a wealthier portion of Latin America. However, with new officials and underdevelopment, poverty is now abundant. A large number of resources were focused toward developing the oil industry while other developments were delayed. With the newfound prosperity that oil brought, the economic gap grew further and further apart. The consequences of such destitution can be easily seen in the adults and children of Venezuela. Food, medicine, water and other resources are greatly lacking. This leaves people desperately searching for food.

The desperation associated with poverty was significantly increased in March due to a five-day blackout. Resources like food and water were even more scarce than usual. Some resorted to collecting water from sewage pipes. Multitudes of people were left without food. People rushed to stores to find food but discovered that the stores were already stripped. Some stores were even trashed and burnt in the chaos that ensued with riots. The riots were also the cause of several deaths from untreated medical conditions to gunshot wounds. Hospitals operated under less than ideal conditions, with limited access to electricity and supplies, such as soap.

The Effects of This Crisis On Children

In a press release, UNICEF stated, “ While precise figures are unavailable because of very limited official health or nutrition data, there are clear signs that the crisis is limiting children’s access to quality health services, medicines and food.” Statistics about conditions in Venezuela can be hard to come by, and the ones that are available are often disheartening. Malnutrition is becoming a larger issue for the children of Venezuela. While the government has attempted some measures of addressing the problem, such as monthly packages of food for sale, more still needs to be done to provide for the Venezuelan people.

As a result of the continued crisis in Venezuela, many have fled the country. As of 2018, two million people had already left Venezuela; without a doubt, numerous others have left since. For those who are awaiting refugee status or to be reunited with lost family members, UNICEF has created a safe place to help children with this difficult time.

The Happiness Plan

The “Happiness Plan” is a safe space for children that has been set up in a tent in the country of Peru. Filled with games, coloring pages and books, this tent provides an outlet for children to be children while awaiting their official entry into Peru. In addition to the fun activities, the “Happiness Plan” offers psychosocial support from professionals for children struggling with these difficult transitions they are facing.

Some of the children passing through the tent have been separated from their families. They are awaiting the chance to rejoin their families in Peru. Others are with some members of their nuclear family but had to leave the rest of their family and friends behind them in Venezuela. One survey taken by UNICEF and the International Organization for Migration stated that 73 percent of Venezuelan families in Tumbes, Peru, had to leave behind one or more of their children.

In such a dismal time for Venezuela, it is reassuring to know that organizations such as UNICEF and Plan International are implementing programs to help these children who have experienced such abrupt change. They will undoubtedly need physical and psychological support to heal from the trauma they have experienced in their home country.

– Carolyn Newsome
Photo: Flickr
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Poverty Rate of Venezuela Increases

Poverty Rate of Venezuela
Venezuela, once expected to be one of the richest countries in South America, has been crippled by socialist dictators and now suffers from widespread poverty. In fact, 82% of the population lives in poverty. With the largest oil reserves in the world, Venezuela’s economy has become solely dependent on oil.

Venezuela has relied on high oil prices to bolster their exports and pay for importing basic goods, including food and medicine. However, with the price of oil dropping dramatically in the last few years, Venezuela’s economy has taken a major hit and caused drastic inflation. As inflation skyrocketed and political turmoil brewed, investors and businesses drained out of the country.

Currently, Venezuela leads the world with the highest inflation. In December of 2016, it reached a high of 800% inflation and has not significantly decreased since. According to the LA Times, it cost $150 to buy a dozen eggs in Venezuela in 2016. This hyperinflation has caused Venezuela’s currency, the Bolivar Fuerte, to depreciate. This has caused the poverty rate of Venezuela to jump to more than 80%.

 

Poverty in Venezuela

 

The face of poverty in Venezuela is also changing. With such a staggeringly high poverty rate, poverty now affects citizens with degrees who cannot find jobs and more urban people, in addition to the already rural poor.

Long lines at supermarkets have developed as people seek the most basic and necessary means of survival. According to CNBC, Venezuelans are eating two or fewer meals a day and around three-fourths of the population have watched their weight decrease throughout the years.

In 2016, President Nicolas Maduro increased the minimum wage by 40%. With inflation, this means that citizens who receive minimum wage earn just $67 a month. The explosive poverty rate and lack of proper government response have prompted protests, as this issue is now being seen as a clear violation of human rights.

However, opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez, his wife, Lilian Tintori and Capriles Radonski acknowledge the situation and have been fighting for a better Venezuela. A Venezuela with democratic power, basic goods and luxuries everyone can afford, a Venezuela with jobs for everyone, lower crime rates and better health care.

The high poverty rate in Venezuela has reached the attention of the world. Raising awareness has been part of finding hope for Venezuela. The hashtag #SOSVenezuela has been used over the last few years to protest corruption and has acted as a rallying cry to bring global attention to the people affected by Venezuela’s dire political situation.

– Francis Hurtado

Photo: Google

Three Reasons for the Economic Crisis in Venezuela

Economic Crisis in VenezuelaOn Saturday, May 14, Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, issued a state of emergency in response to widespread discontent that had risen throughout the country. Protests and calls for a reform in the government came about because of the historic economic crisis in Venezuela.

Since the beginning of 2015, inflation within the country has been on a steady increase. During the months of June and July, it began to accelerate upward. By the close of the year, Venezuela was left with an inflation rate of 180 percent, the highest in the world. This has led to deficiencies in food, medicine and hygiene products.

However, the recent explosion of economic inflation is only a symptom of deeper troubles within the economy that have been building for the past years. Many are criticizing Venezuela for failing to diversify in products and services. Gretchen Bakke of the New Yorker summarized the economic crisis in Venezuela using the adage, “putting all its eggs in one basket.”

Various occurrences have led Venezuela to the brink of economic collapse, but three in particular bear mentioning:

1. Venezuela’s Dependence on Oil as a Profitable Export

Petroleum products made up roughly 93 percent of the $63 billion in exports that Venezuela made in 2014. This is not surprising, since Venezuela is sitting on the largest proven oil reserves in the world. Historically, various Venezuelan presidents have used petroleum production and exports to increase development, yet they failed to diversify their economic productions. In the 1920s Venezuela registered a third of its GDP as agricultural products, but almost a century later, these products make up six percent of GDP and less than one percent of the country’s exports.

Its identity as an oil-producing state has served Venezuela well in the past, but the tide is turning. With lifted sanctions on Iranian petroleum and increased oil production in the United States, Canada and Iraq, petroleum prices have been driven down by a saturated global market. The New York Times reported a barrel of oil to be 70 percent cheaper now than it was two years ago.

2. Venezuela’s Dependence on Water as its Primary Electricity Source

Almost 80 percent of Venezuela’s electricity comes from hydroelectric power. The international community has recently been pushing for cleaner energy (that which does not rely on fossil fuels) and hydroelectricity is one way to achieve these goals. However, hydro-power can be problematic when water turns into a limited resource.

Venezuela has currently been suffering through a three-year drought which many are attributing to El Niño, an intermittent weather pattern that has been accentuated by the recent rise in global temperature. In addition to the normal problems that are generated by water shortages, Venezuela is now facing a shortened work week due to the rationing of electricity for the many shortages.

These newly-prescribed measures are criticized for accelerating the process of economic collapse, since workers now have a shortened period in which they can earn money to pay for the necessities of life.

3. Venezuela’s Unipolar Political System

For years, the socialist party has dominated the branches of the central government, and in the recent escalations of the economic crisis in Venezuela have caused the government to “become more authoritarian,” as the Council on Foreign Relations wrote.

In December of last year, the opposing party finally took control of one part of the government, The National Assembly. Though a referendum is being constructed to oust Maduro from his seat, very few immediate solutions are being proposed to relieve the collapsing economy.

The economic crisis in Venezuela is provoking protests throughout the country. Various citizens of the country told the Wall Street Journal that they have to stand for hours in line to receive a small portion of food for the day. These individuals have hopes to change the trajectory of their nation, and with the majority of the people on their side, they may still have time to do so.

– Preston Rust

Photo: Flickr

Food Shortage In Venezuela: Supermarket Raids

food_shortage_venezuela
Plagued by collapsing currency and the highest inflation rate in the world, Venezuelans are facing soaring prices and pervasive shortages in their nation. Although waves of food scarcity have troubled the country in the past, this time the food shortage in Venezuela has persisted for over a year and shelves are remaining bereft of many essential products. Citizens are unable to easily acquire food items such as corn flour, rice and coffee, as well as other basic products like detergent and toiletries. Forced to wait in line for hours on end for goods, middle and lower class people in Venezuela are reaching a breaking point.

An unfortunate consequence of this dwindling morale is a countrywide rise in supermarket raids. Videos shared on sites such as Youtube, Whatsapp and Facebook show looters ransacking local supermarkets when rare provisions like coffee and toilet paper hit the shelves.

If Venezuelan citizens wait in line for these products, there is a slim chance that they will be able to get them, making criminal actions extremely tempting. While some looters turn to violence in order to feed their families, others do so with the desire to profit off the crisis by selling the items on the black market.

Many find Venezuela’s predicament somewhat surprising, as it is an oil-exporting country – a characteristic, which usually points to economic prosperity. According to economist Asdrubal Oliveros, however, this oil production is simply not enough.

“Other than oil we produce close to nothing, and even oil production has decreased,” Oliveros said. “There is a lack of hard currency, and, in a country that imports everything, this becomes more evident with food scarcity.”

Native farmer Jesus Lopez agrees with Oliveros. “We used to produce rice and we had excellent coffee; now we produce nothing,” he says. “With the situation here people abandoned the fields.”

Lopez is referring to farmland seized by the Venezuelan government that now sits idle. Oliveros remarks on this government-owned land as well, noting that the seizure caused an overvalued exchange rate that destroyed agriculture because “it’s cheaper to import than it is to produce.”

The government’s potential role in the food shortages may explain why the supermarket raid footage is somewhat controversial. Incidences of supermarket raiding are largely covered up and major national news sources do not address the issue.

Footage of supermarket raids is shared on social media almost weekly, however, and posters maintain that the footage is authentic and emphasize their role as activists. Posting the violent raiding videos on the Internet raises awareness of the issue and allows Venezuelans to gain a perspective on the problem that is not cast in a pro-government light.

Although the violent videos are somewhat shocking, perhaps this shock value is what Venezuela and its citizens need in order to get the country back on track.

– Katie Pickle

Sources: LA Times, The Guardian
Photo: TIME