Venezuela - Nutritional emergency

31 December 2019

(ANS - Caracas) - According to the FAO, the levels of malnutrition in Venezuela have tripled in the past two years. 80% of families live in a state of nutritional insecurity. Food consumption has halved, as has GDP. Inflation reached 1,698,488% and the unemployment rate 27%. The operation of the health system and of the school system has decreased by 60 and 70% respectively. These are just some of the figures extrapolated from the 2019 Sfide - Challenges report, published in February by Caritas Venezuela, which outline the scenario of total crisis in which the country has been for too long. Meanwhile, the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide has almost reached 5 million. Venezuelans are exhausted. Caracas is a ghost town.

News from missionaries
The Salesians in Venezuela have confirmed these alarming figures and stressed that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, recently released information that child malnutrition is 35% and that almost all Venezuelans live in extreme poverty, with an income of less than two dollars a day. The Sons of Don Bosco, as is their style, continue to be close to the population, especially the youngest, but not only, and to strongly support the importance of education.

 

A project involving 11 schools: motivations and objectives
The Sons of Don Bosco again asked Missions Don Bosco for help, as they had already done a year and a half ago, to guarantee one meal a day to the users of the Salesian schools. The element that is different is the new nutritional project that now also involves adults: teachers, school workers, administrative employees ... to help them carry on their work, to offer them one more opportunity to stay in Venezuela, where food is scarce, where millions of people eat only one meal a day. They want them to continue to support young people: for this reason, guaranteeing them lunch too, along with being the reference figures of children and young people who attend Salesian schools, means a lot. Those involved in the project are educational institutions of various levels and degrees, scattered throughout the country, all located in difficult neighborhoods. And they asked to ensure a daily meal for 1,650 students selected from those at risk of malnutrition and 750 employees of 11 schools in Venezuela.

Source: Don Bosco Missions

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ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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