RESTORING HOPE FOR CHILDREN IN VENEZUELA

ECW funds provided school and meal kits to crisis-affected families in Venezuela to continue the school feeding programme and distance learning during the pandemic.

By Education Cannot Wait

August 17^th, 2021

Spanish

Story from the field. Special contribution by UNICEF Venezuela

The ongoing socio-economic and political crisis in Venezuela has affected 7 million people, including 3.2 million children as of 2020. After years of economic, social, and political tensions, public services in Venezuela have weakened and children have been disproportionately affected, receiving limited access to education, food, water, immunization, medical treatment, and protection.

The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened the situation in Venezuela. About 6.9 million students in the country have missed classroom instruction since the onset of the pandemic. There have also been 170 days of full school closure from March 2020 - February 2021.

One out of three Venezuelans is food insecure, making Venezuela the 4th largest food crisis in the world. Due to the pandemic, school feeding programmes have been interrupted and nutritional statistics of school-aged girls and boys have worsened. Household food insecurity has also increased, making this crisis even more dire. With education disrupted and limited food resources available, many Venezuelan children are losing hope for a better future.

Students maintain physical distance while waiting to receive food kits at a school in Guatire, outside of Caracas, from UNICEF as part of an ECW-funded programme. UNICEF/2020/Cabral

Lismaris is a single mother of three living west of Caracas and is the only wage earner in her house. She cleans houses to support her family but has been unable to work due to the COVID-19 quarantine and lockdowns. Lismaris fed her family one meal a day at a soup kitchen outside of Caracas, but now the kitchen is closed leaving them to struggle each day for proper nutrition.

“Before, we would go down to a dining room where they gave lunch to my three children, but it was closed due to the quarantine. Now the food is barely enough for us, we mix an egg with rice and that is what the four of us eat.” ~ Lismaris Hernandez

With no work or outside resources available, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) has stepped in the void to provide vital support to Lismaris and her family, as well as many other families in her community and country.

Education Cannot Wait is the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. ECW’s programme in Venezuela focuses on increasing and ensuring safe learning environments exist for children in and out of school with implementing partner UNICEF.

ECW reached 12,871 vulnerable children with the summer Catch-Up Programme, receiving learning materials in the subjects of reading and writing, mathematics, and psycho-emotional development. For students out of school, the programme provided technical training and life skill-building certifications, reaching 11,409 girls and boys.

The programme trained 1,685 teachers in distance learning and as well as provided them with food and hygiene kits, and smartphones for those who needed them to contact their students.

Due to the pandemic, ECW added additional $1 million dollars in April 2020 to the First Emergency Response (FER) Programme in Venezuela totaling an investment of $8 million dollars in two years. The programme had to shift focus due to the pandemic and deliver food and school kits to families with children at risk of dropping out of school or who are already not attending school.

The programme also provided communities in Venezuela with 3-6 academic facilitators to follow up with students to ensure they are keeping up with their schoolwork.

“My children are underweight. It's hard. This program (Education Cannot Wait) is a great help now that I can't go out to work. I feel very happy for this support and I hope that soon my son will be able to go to school again”. ~ Lismaris Hernandez

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Lismaris has been able to dedicate 2 hours every afternoon to her children's studies. Her oldest son is the only one who attends school regularly, as her middle son has no teacher currently and her youngest will enter preschool next year. She is concerned for her children's studies but is grateful for ECW’s support and is hopeful for the future.

“My 11-year-old son is in 4th grade, but he has only received 15 days of class since the school year began in September because his teacher left and there have been no substitutes. I'm super worried about his education, so I put him on homework, but it's not the same.”

UNICEF delivers food kits for students who learn skills to have a trade in a school located in the city of Guatire, Venezuela, as part of a ECW-funded programme. UNICEF/2020/Cabral

The ECW-funded school feeding programme provided the student’s families with a monthly food bag filled with non-perishable food, and hygiene kits that contained antibacterial gel, soap, and personal protection equipment. These kits reached 84,137 people and protected families from COVID-19 and food insecurity.

71,000 booklets were also distributed with the hygiene kits to educate adolescents on handwashing, water treatment, and food handling. The distribution of these kits was facilitated by ECW’s partners AVEC and ASEINC.

In addition to funding school feeding programs to vulnerable children and youth, ECW has also provided support for technical training programmes in Caracas. Miguel teaches electrical installation at a training centre outside Venezuela’s capital. His students are mainly out-of-school children looking to learn a trade to support their families.

During the pandemic, he had to adapt his teaching techniques to distance learning. Miguel and the team at the learning centre developed workbooks for his students to complete every two weeks and virtual assessments by text.

Miguel, who teaches electricity at a school in Guatire, outside of Caracas, has been adapting his teaching for the pandemic. UNICEF/2020/Cabral

“This [support] is priceless. And it has been lovely seeing the young people respond to distance learning.” ~ Miguel

Miguel and his students also benefited from the school feeding programme and hygiene kits.

“Many of the students were in tears the first time they picked up the food kits because they weren’t expecting them. I received a kit and a personal hygiene pack containing shower gel, soap, a mask and shampoo. I have a five-year-old daughter, so the food kit was like a gift from heaven – she has been able to start drinking milk!” ~ Miguel

17-year-old Fernando picks up his food kit at his school where he also receives electrical installation trade training. UNICEF/2020/Cabral

As the crisis in Venezuela escalates, more Venezuelans are migrating to the neighboring countries of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. These people are highly vulnerable to hunger and exploitation and the need to support these refugees is urgent.

In April 2021, ECW announced an additional $1.5 million dollars in funds to the $27.2 million dollar Multi-Year Resilience response for Venezuelan refugee, migrant, and host-community children. ECW calls on private sector donors for an additional $116 million in emergency response for this crisis.

“Global leaders must step up to address this pressing humanitarian crisis. Over 5.4 million refugees and migrants from Venezuela have fled their country due to violence and insecurity.

Girls and boys in this group are at risk of sexual exploitation, human trafficking, discrimination, hunger and malnutrition, and restricted access to schooling. If we don’t act now, many will never return to the safety and opportunity that an education provides.”

~ Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

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