Food for Venezuelans.

(Photo by: Alessandro Falco/Al Jazzera)

Dear all,
As many of your probably heard in the news or from my side, Venezuela is going through a very difficult situation. Inflation (and lack of production) is unbelievably high and most Venezuelans cannot afford to buy food for a normal diet, therefore most of them eat once a day, when possible, sometimes they spend days without any food.

You can imagine that the amount of malnourished people is hard to believe, but it happens! I have seen with my own eyes how people lost crazy amounts of weight in the last months.

Venezuelans are literally dying of hunger or of diseases that are easily curable, but due to the lack of medicines (or the high prices) in the racks, they cannot be cured.

The fact is, Venezuelans need help, and yes, it is hard to find food there, but it is even harder and much more expensive to send it from here. The protests that have been taking place in the country in the last months, caused that the government created even stronger checks for all the packages sent from abroad, which means, that things that we would wish to send, might be confiscated by the custom guards.

Many of you had asked me tons of times how can you help, and many of you were amazing enough and gave me whatever medicine you did not use anymore or other things to give them forward. THANK YOU! Some others never get sick (luckily!), or do not have children (that grow up and do not need some clothes anymore) and still would like to help, so this here is for you! For the ones that could help with money.

You might be wondering what can be done with the money... Well, buy food.
I have a relative and a very good friend of mine working in a Children's Hospital and in the Psychiatric Hospital, my aunt is also involved with different help groups there, so she could also hand over food to people who need it.

Even if it might be still hard to send things, I gave it a second thought, and some of the money will be used to buy vitamins and maybe some baby food, or washable diapers (yeah, those are non existent too). If you have some medicines that you do not need, please let me know, and I can do my research and try to find a person in Venezuela who might use it (this is a bit more complicated because now all the medicines have to be sent with prescription, but it is not impossible!).

I leave here a couple of links that might give you a better idea of what it is going on in Venezuela. It is bad... but I suggest you to read a couple, so you know where your money will be going:

Children face hunger crisis in Venezuela as malnutrition soars: http://www.caritas.org/2017/05/children-face-hunger-crisis-in-venezuela-as-malnutrition-soars/

Venezuela's child malnutrition crisis grows: http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-40130224/venezuela-s-child-malnutrition-crisis-grows

The face of hunger and malnutrition in Venezuela: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/10/face-hunger-malnutrition-venezuela-161007055723064.html

As Crisis Mounts in Venezuela Children Die From Preventable Diseases, Malnutrition: https://thewire.in/152584/crisis-mounts-venezuelan-children-die-preventable-diseases-malnutrition/

Venezuela’s hunger crisis is for real: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/06/01/venezuelas-hunger-crisis-is-for-real/?utm_term=.10267d0f5c16

Inside Venezuela’s Crumbling Mental Hospitals: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/world/americas/inside-a-dysfunctional-psychiatric-hospital.html

Venezuela crisis: Caracas hospital shows sorry state of health system: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37562058

I do not expect Venezuelans abroad to help, because many of us are sending a lot of help to our families and friends, but if you can, please share!

And last but not least, any amount is good for a donation:

- with 1€: we can provide 4 small meals (like breakfast)
- with 10€: we can buy a bag with food for a family.

As long as there is money, food will be immediately bought and given to those in need.

Thank you SO so much!