dagblog - Comments for "Venezuela’s Collapse Is the Worst Outside of War in Decades, Economists Say"

Nurse Hitchhikes to Help Girl

artappraiser — Tue, 21 May 2019 05:59:48 +0000

In reply to Venezuela’s Collapse Is the Worst Outside of War in Decades, Economists Say

Nurse Hitchhikes to Help Girl Whose Photo Drew Attention to Hunger in Venezuela
Many who saw the picture of Anailin Nava, a 2-year-old girl suffering from malnutrition, wanted to help.
Gasoline shortages have crippled much of Venezuela, but one nurse packed a supply of food and set out for the girl’s home.

By Isayen Herrera and Anatoly Kurmanaev @ NYTimes.com, May 20, 2019

CARACAS, Venezuela — When an image of the young Venezuelan girl first began to circulate last week, the reaction was almost instantaneous.

She is 2 years old, but malnutrition and untreated illness have wasted her body back to a state of virtual infancy. She spends her day on her back in her family’s dilapidated hut.

Her name is Anailin Nava, and when readers saw the photograph of her in a New York Times article on the economic collapse of Venezuela, many had a common impulse: Helping her country out of a protracted humanitarian crisis may be difficult, but surely there was something that could be done for this one child.

On Sunday, aid began to arrive.

Gasoline shortages have crippled much of Venezuela, but Fabiola Molero, a nurse with a Roman Catholic aid group, Caritas, packed a bag with a scale and a 15-day supply of nutritional supplements, milk and food, and hitchhiked from the western city of Maracaibo to Toas Island, where Anailin lives.

Ms. Molero has been working as a nurse in public hospitals for 20 years, but three years ago she quit and became a volunteer with Caritas so she could fight the hunger that was devastating the country.

“I worked in a hospital and quit because I couldn’t handle the fact that children were dying in my arms for lack of food,” she said.

When she set off on Sunday, her goal was to help Anailin, and also assess the condition of other children in her community [....]

Brent, the photo caption is a

artappraiser — Sun, 19 May 2019 23:26:51 +0000

In reply to I contacted UNICEF and

Brent, the photo caption is a little confusing but within the article is the explanation that Anailin is not in a hospital because there no longer is one, rather she lives in a hut with her mother:

Hyperinflation has reduced the island’s entire budget to the equivalent of $400 a month, or just 3 cents per estimated resident, according to the mayor, Hector Nava.

The hospital has no medication and no patients. The last person to be hospitalized died in agony a day later without treatment for her kidney disease, doctors at the hospital said.

As Toas hospital’s beds stand empty, 2-year-old Anailin Nava is wasting away in a nearby hut from malnutrition and treatable muscular paralysis. Her mother, Maibeli Nava, does not have money to take her to Colombia for treatment, she said.

The four stone quarries that are the island’s only industry have been idle since robbers stole all power cables connecting them to the grid last year. Local opposition activists estimate up to a third of the residents have emigrated from the island in the past two years.

“It used to be a paradise,” said Arturo Flores, the local municipality’s security coordinator, who sells a fermented corn drink from a bucket to local fishermen to round up his salary, which is equivalent to $4 a month. “Now, everyone is fleeing.”

I have not read what much about the availability of international aid in the whole country; I suspect it is not there because of the sanctions to get Maduro to step down and his refusal to admit anything is wrong? And that people flee because they can get aid across the border? Would in particular welcome sharing links that explain what's up with that.

I contacted UNICEF and

Brent Dunlevy — Sun, 19 May 2019 20:05:45 +0000

In reply to Venezuela’s Collapse Is the Worst Outside of War in Decades, Economists Say

I contacted UNICEF and international relief. Poor Anilin in a Taos island Venezuelan hospital. The country has has electrical blackouts.

Angry Venezuelans wait hours

artappraiser — Sat, 18 May 2019 04:50:05 +0000

In reply to Venezuela’s Collapse Is the Worst Outside of War in Decades, Economists Say

Angry Venezuelans wait hours for fuel as shortages worsen

By Deisy Buitrag and Corina Pons @ Reuters.com, May 17

CARACAS/PUERTO CABELLO, Venezuela - Angry drivers queued for hours in towns across Venezuela on Friday as fuel shortages worsened in the South American nation following a plunge in gasoline imports and a stoppage at the nation’s second-largest oil refinery.

Shortages of motor fuel have become a periodic occurrence in the OPEC nation, particularly in border regions where smuggling to neighboring countries is rife, the result of generous subsidies from state-run oil company PDVSA that have made gasoline nearly free in Venezuela.

But in recent days lines at gas stations in the western and southern border states of Tachira, Zulia and Bolivar have grown longer than usual, often lasting more than five hours [....]