In cardboard boxes and accompanied by a note, some Venezuelan minors have been abandoned on public roads

In a cardboard box, with a note and hope to find a better future. More and more children are abandoned in Venezuela by their parents, who, faced with the deep humanitarian crisis that plagues the nation, are forced to divest their own family to survive.

Leer en español: Abandono infantil: otro flagelo de la crisis en Venezuela

According to figures collected by the Community Learning Center in Venezuela (CECODAP, in Spanish), only in 2017, 21 cases of minors who were abandoned on public roads or delivered to shelters for their care were officially registered. Although there are no figures for 2018, it is believed that hundreds of children lose their families each year, either through total abandonment or under the care of third parties who agree to take care of the child while their parents migrate to other countries in search of better economic income.

One of the most recent cases that shook thousands of users on social media took place in the Miranda state. There, in a box and outside a residential building, a minor of approximately two years was left. Although there were no signs of malnutrition or poor health conditions, the finding shocked the community.

Another similar case was registered in Cúcuta, a city bordering Venezuela in northeastern Colombia, where a minor barely four days old was left in the vicinity of the local stadium with a note indicating his nationality, time of life, and name.

These two cases, verified by the authorities, is another of the faces of the humanitarian crisis in which the nation with the largest oil reserves in the world is submerged. According to authorities' explanations, large families are forced to give up their children due to control organizations, other members of the family in better conditions or simply drifting in the streets.

Shelters without the capacity to help

For Fernando Pereira, founder of CECODAP, the scourge of child abandonment is nothing more than a "natural sequel to the humanitarian crisis" in Venezuela. In an interview for NTN24, the specialist argues that although more and more families and minors arrive at support institutions in the nation, less are the agencies' possibilities to offer protection, shelter, or help.

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In the words of Pereira, the budget of public and private institutions that provide childcare has decreased and therefore it becomes more difficult to implement aid programs for both families and children, who are delivered to shelters.

Although the official figures of Venezuelan children abandoned in 2018 have not been submitted by the control agencies, it is feared that it may be higher than those registered in the previous year. The isolated cases that begin to be known could only be the beginning of an extensive wave of child abandonments for which there are still no real contingencies. The government rejects the situation, arguing that it is a media montage to weaken the regime.

LatinAmerican Post | Krishna Jaramillo
Translated from “Abandono infantil: otro flagelo de la crisis en Venezuela”

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