The difficult situation that Venezuela is going through today is not a secret for anyone. Especially if we focus on the subject of food. Although it is a sensitive issue I have decided to talk about it for two reasons:
Let you know a little more about this, since many people around the world (and even people in Venezuela) doesn’t know about the malnutrition figures.
And to be able to show to this community that even though a small contribution, can make the difference; and to tell you that thanks to Steemit I was able to achieve one of the most beautiful projects I’ve ever done with my best friend.
Recently, my friend (whose name is also Angelica and who always support many of my inventions) and I read in the news about child malnutrition in our country, where they handled some figures about this, which impacted us, not because of the figures (that also impacted us) but because having access to this type of information is not very easy and not entirely reliable in our country, Venezuela. However, we trust in this news because the source was from the "Cáritas de Venezuela" foundation whose slogan is "Help us to help!" and we loved the fact that they could give access to this type of information.
Now, to the real thing, according to the “Cáritas de Venezuela” foundation:
"During 2017, between five and six children died weekly due to lack of food, and at least 33% of the child population presented a delay in their growth."
Really worrying, especially the fact where in the news they talk about an "irreversible" damage in the lives of these infants.
It also says that the malnutrition rate is much higher in children under six months old, doubling the rate of malnutrition of infants over two years. Sounds heavy, right? To me, this leads me to think that the mothers during their pregnancy can’t consume, or doesn’t have access to a rich and balanced diet that allows an adequate development of the life they carry in their womb; And let's not talk about the supplements and medicines they need during this stage, because all the venezuelans know how hard it is to find certain medicines in our country.
It should be noted that the Venezuelan Health Observatory (OVS) also indicated that 60% of the child population is in a state of malnutrition; but if we talk about the population in general, we have that “Ciudadanía en Acción” estimates that one million two hundred thousand Venezuelans are in chronic malnutrition.
Which makes me to understand that many of the Venezuelans, in spite of not being in street situation specifically, can have their life compromised, since they do not consume enough nutrients and carbohydrates. According to Raffalli, these people:
"They would be presenting protein malnutrition, so they consume 10% of protein and less than 40% of calories" It sounds pretty hard, right?
When I read this information with my best friend, we couldn’t stop asking ourself "What can we do to help?" At first we wanted to help and collaborate with some foundation but we didn’t have much information about it and we didn’t know how to contact this foundations; so in the end we decided to leave it in our hands.When I read this information with my best friend, we couldn’t stop asking ourself "What can we do to help?" At first we wanted to help and collaborate with some foundation but we didn’t have much information about it and we didn’t know how to contact this foundations; so in the end we decided to leave it in our hands.
So after many conversations with our family and between us, we decided to make our little project and take actions on the matter. We know that our contribution was not the biggest of all but we are still proud.
On the side of my best friend, with the help of her neighbor (who makes delicious empanadas for sale) she was able to get 100 empanadas.
We started our day at 8 in the morning, traveling most of Maracay, my town. With the help of my mom @eliangel who took us to all these places, and we are very grateful with her for all the support and company during that day, and with my sister @eliarenas, who was our photographer in the activity.
Our first stop was in one of the squares located in the center of the city. Although we must admit that initially things got a little out of control, we could still handle the situation. At this stop we observed two men looking for something to eat in the trash. At first when we called their attention to offer them something to eat they were very insecure to approach, but once they verified that what we were saying was true we were able to have a pleasant conversation with them, and we noticed that they were educated people, and they even helped us locate other people to offer them something to eat, and they told us that many of the children in the area were usually in the afternoon, which made us think that maybe we wouldn't be able to offer them something to eat for that reason.
Something curious happened just when we picked up everything to leave this first stop, and it was that one of the officers of the police approached us to the vehicle, but we never understood what were his real intentions in that moment, but he approached asking if we belonged to a foundation and which was the name of it, my best friend answered right away "No, officer. We don’t belong to any foundation. This is something we do independently, not for profit." We all got a little scared, of course. We thought that maybe he wouldn’t agree with the activity or, in the worst case, that they would take us away for taking pictures or doing the activity; but in the end he simply replied "No, I don’t want you to think that I don’t want you guys here, only I wanted to know who was the foundation doing this because this seems like a very good activity and I support this, you guys are earning God's blessing." It should be noted that at the time this official approached to us, a man who was passing by observing what we were doing also approached to our car to support us, telling the police that please don’t bother the activity because it’s for a good cause, and he also gave us his blessing. We are very grateful with him.
And so the day went by, between blessings and thanks from the people, we were taking our little contribution to those people that we saw on the street or who simply needed something to eat, because many times we can see that someone is fine externally but we will never know how are the things for that person at home, what that person may be going through in its life.
Finally, I would like to talk about three of the cases that most impacted us during the trip. We found a little boy, his name is Enrique, I think he is 5 or 6 years old, his clothes were quite dirty, but this was not what really shocked us, it was the fact that when we got close he could hardly move, talk or even see us, he was completely dehydrated, lying on a bench in another of the squares we visited, a place full of people but where he was alone in a corner lying down. As a medicine student I was really worried about him, I felt scared for that kid, I wanted to help him because he looked incredibly malnourished. We spent a long time trying to make him eat something or just to make him get up so he could drink some water but he didn't want to, he just wanted to keep lying down. Finally we left aside his food along with the water, but in the distance we were observing him and after a few minutes he hid to eat and we noticed that one of the empanadas put it in the pocket of his little jeans, and that made us think that maybe he has a sibling or he saved it for someone who is in charge of "taking care of him." It broke our hearts.
The second case that also surprised us was a young man about 25 years old, who we found near a canal where many of the residents of the area put their trash, and he was there, looking for something to eat. When we got closer, he seemed to be a little lost, and you could see that he was in a state of malnutrition. At first he did not pay any attention to us but we insisted and when he turned around to see us he was eating a fruit shell that he throw away when we offered him empanadas and water. He thanked us and went to take a sit to eat.
And finally, the last case is about 2 ladies and a girl that we found looking for food in a garbage dump in a community, but they didn’t look as if they were in a street condition, however, they had babies in their arms while they were looking for something to take home to eat. When we approaching, they were about to go home, so we walked faster until we arrived and offered them food. Insecure they accepted the empanadas and gave us a smile along with a "Thank you very much."
I want to stand out that none of this was done for the purpose of receiving any recognition from others. We just did it because we love our country and it hurts us to see our people go through situations like these. Our main reason was to bring a smile and make a different day for those who in a day may not even drink a glass of clean water.
We would also love to inspire other people to do activities similar to these one. We wanted to show too that you don’t need lots of people, be part of a giant organization or have mountains of food to do it, remember that no matter how small the contribution is, is going to be appreciated. Believe me, there is nothing more beautiful and satisfying than hearing “Thank you” and receiving the blessings of the people, not only from those that you help, but also of those who observe the activity.
To end the post I would like to thank my best friend again for being part of something so beautiful, my sister for giving us encouragement and offer their help, to Mrs. Adriana (my friend's mom) and my mom for supporting us in our ideas, to each of the people who support my posts in Steemit because I was able to use some of the money I earned on the platform to buy some of the things we gave in this activity, and finally to God for protecting us and let everything to go well and just as we planned, for illuminate our lives and minds.
I hope you liked our activity and I hope this inspired you in some way! Greetings and blessings for each one of you in this community.
All the photos of the post belong to me, except those with their respective sources. The photos were captured by a Sony and Huawei phone, and a Samsung SL202 camera. On February 7th of 2018.
Some of the information presented in this post was taken from here.
Hello @gellyarenas: wow! tremendous initiative, I really congratulate you. We hope that all Venezuelans have the same initiative. God bless you.
Thank you! and amen. God bless you too, greetings.
God will definitely bless you. The more you give to those in need the more blessings come, that's what they say. :)
I also heard Venezuela now has it's own cryptocurrency. Haven't checked on the latest on it though.
I wonder why more people aren't flocking over to Colombia though just to help ease the problem and maybe they can look for a job there? Or is it not allowed?
Good luck to Venezuela! Hope the troubles doesn't last too long.
Amen, and thank you! God is good, and we are happy to help in everything we can.
Yeah, the goverment of Venezuela founded a crypto named "Petro" but that's more like a farce. They just want to have money for national debt... So, they are using the "Petro" as a excuse to found more money.
There is a lot of people going to Colombia, but the problem is they are collapsing the country because there is a lot of venezuelans unemployeed, so is more like a problem for Colombia because they can't be in charge of all the people (venezuelans) that doesn't have anything to live there but still they go to that country and stay sleeping in the streets and stuff like that. But, oh well, this is a large topic to talk about in a comment.
Thank you for your good wishes! Greetings.
Oh I see. At least I know more about it. You're welcome and thanks for sharing!
@gellyarenas You are doing Good, I am following you through. <3 God Bless Good soul like you :) Here catch my vote
Amen <3 Thank you so much for your kind words! God bless you too.