Good News - August 2019

OUT AND ABOUT 34 AUGUST 2019 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition Food For The Poor, Minuto de Dios Join Forces to Aid Venezuelan Migrants "" #" " # # # " !"#$ # # # !"" # # !" #" "" # "$ " "# $ !" Sy Wat th p y ho Assisted Liv m n e at ing & Memory Care erway Fort Lauderdale s Food For The Poor is partnering with Minuto de Dios, a Colombian non- profit organization, to bring relief to families in Colom- bia, including tens of thou- sands of Venezuelan migrants who have fled to escape shortages of food, water and medicine. As many as 30,000 a people a day fromVenezuela pass through the Colombian border city of Cucuta. Some only stay for a day to buy food andmedicine and then return to Venezuela. Others remain homeless on the streets or continue on foot to look for opportunities elsewhere in Colombia or other countries. “Venezuela is not a country to which we have needed to send aid before, it is a country of extreme nat- ural wealth, and yet, its peo- ple are starving,” said Food For The Poor Executive Di- rector Angel Aloma. “Venezuela’s neighbor, the nation of Colombia, despite its own economic fragility, has welcomed these refugees seeking asylum from their countries and their troubles. How could we ig- nore this situation?” A Food For The Poor team recently visited Colom- bia to see the face of the growing crisis and met Car- men, a 27-year-old mother and elementary school teacher who sold everything she owned to migrate to Colombia with her daughters, Falete, 11, and Cielo, 1. Carmen left Venezuela because she could no longer afford to feed her family on a meager teacher’s salary less than $9 a month, not even enough to buy a dozen eggs. They were forced to drink from the river because there was no clean water where they lived. Home, now, is a con- crete sidewalk near a feed- ing center run by the Catholic Diocese of Cucuta. There, they can receive breakfast and lunch, includ- ing MannaPack rice casse- role meals “I can’t believe you have to flee your country because of hunger and lack of medi- cines,” Carmen said. Dr. Alonso Ortiz, Execu- tive Director of Minuto de Dios, saidmore than 4million Venezuelans such as Car- men and her two daughters, have fled their country as its economy has collapsed. More than 1 million have settled in Colombia and nearly a quarter of them are homeless. To help Venezuelan mi- grant families in Colombia, go to www.FoodForTheP- oor.org/crisis. Carmen and her two daughters, Cielo ,1, and Falete , 11, are home- less in the streets of Colombia. Carmen , a former school teacher, fled Venezuela due to an economic crisis where she could no longer afford to feed her daughters and migrated to Colombia in hopes for better op- portunities. Photo/Food For The Poor