Valencia…pastelitos, puncture and projects

First of all, many apologies for the long lapse between posts. I have been challenged (and completely defeated) by technology…I have been using my UK mobile to upload posts but, for reasons that are beyond me, phone won´t save and upload new posts. There is no internet at the nun´s home; there is a computer centre at the pre-school but the connection is sometimes painfully slow….By slow, I mean it can take over 1 hour to upload a page (only to find it hasn´t loaded properly). They are hoping to get a broadband connection at some point (so maybe it will be easier next time?). Normally access to an internet cafe (which is where I am now) would not be so problematic but, living in the barrio, my days are more restricted in that I realistically have to be back in the barrio by about 7pm from a security point of view…For the same reasons, there are no photos (the one I have uploaded took about 6 attempts over 5 hrs!) but I will upload them retrospectively once back in the UK.

My departure to Valencia was postponed by a day as one of the nun´s from the same congregation, who had been ill for a long time, passed away. ¨My nuns¨ left the barrio to attend the vigil and so I couldn´t get back in time to collect my things. This did mean though that I had a chance to do laundry and consequently did not feel like a lazy student turning up at my hostfamily´s house with a pile of dirty laundry. The water in Barrio La Moran is officially cut off for 48 hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays. However, the water goes off at midday most days and generally doesn´t come back on again Tuesday afternoon…I am very fortunate in that the nuns have a water tank but we still have to be prudent.

When I first came to Venezuela in 1986 as an AFS exchange student, I lived near to Valencia with my hostfamily. I went back to see them but also visited several projects with Jane from the International Women´s Group in Valencia. We first went to a Children´s Home that I personally had not seen before although Veniños had supported their work. The home currently has 7 children, aged 4 to 18, plus the 4 children of the Evangelical couple who run the home. The home is located in a poorer neighbourhood of Naguanagua and children are mostly referred by the local Child Protection Services. We discussed their presence in the community and some of the challenges they face there. One of the issues is that their local government district doesn´t make any maintenance payment to the home for the children referred there (whereas the Valencia district apparently pays BSF 300 ~approx 75 USD per child per month on the official exchange rate) so operating costs are always a struggle. Veniños helped buy some equipment last year for a semi~industrial bakery so that they had a way to generate an income as well as give some of the children a vocational skill. They are specialising in a Colombian bread (the couple that run the home are originally from Colombia) and have found a small niche market for their product but the couple have often kept crazy hours, working around the restrictions of periodic power cuts….

Due to the donations received in any institution, many other locals perceive the NGO/the staff running it has having money and resources (or at least as having access to such resources) ~ this can stem from something as basic as seeing the children from the home relatively well dressed albeit in second~hand clothes that have been donated. There is often a lack of understanding as to what an effort it takes to raise sufficient funds to maintain any facility if there is no institutional or governmental underwriting of operating costs. This can generate tensions between such projects and the local communities so we discussed the importance of integration and outreach work. 

One of the other issues we discussed at length is on~going support for those that reach age 18 and have to leave the home. Most of the children are not ready for complete independence and realistically need support as they either adapt to university study or to work. Many children´s homes find themselves in this difficult position and would like to provide transition apartments for a period of time but obviously money is often a prohibitive factor.

On that note, we then visited a children´s day care facility in Barrio San Blas, where the Foundation, with the support of Del Monte, has built a transition apartment for girls aged 18 or over who wish to continue studying at university. The apartment isn´t occupied yet but has room for 6 young girls plus an adult carer.

We also did a follow~up visit to see some of the structural improvements Veniños paid for at the centre of the Hermanas del Santisimo Sacramento. The Centre had capacity before for about 200 places on vocational workshops and skills training courses but did not have adequate bathroom facilities for example. All of the work is now complete and the improvements were self~evident since my last visit there.

Lastly, we drove about 30 kms towards Barquisimeto to another children´s home in Bejuma. This home is for about 54 girls. In general there are more homes for boys than girls (girls more often stay with their families, however dysfunctional, and become the carers for younger siblings or end up in prostitution whereas conflict is more common with boys and they end up taking to the streets more often). The family that have built the home for the girls have made an amazing effort to create a spectacular space in a colonial style. Structurally it is the most beautiful children´s homes I have seen but there is also a very good, vibrant atmosphere there too. They are busy running vocational training courses for 84 youths from the local community and are in the process of building a pre~school facility next door too. In different circumstances, this home could easily become a POSADA B + B; the girls that arrive there from all over the country though each come with a tragic tale. One of the girls, who is now 19 and studying law, was found living on a rubbish tip; another was shot in the face and then hidden from public sight for a long time (the home has arranged numerous reconstructive surgeries but also helped the young girl recover a degree of self~confidence). Other girls were sexually and physically abused before being sent to the home, including a case of repeated electrocution. In some cases, critical health issues may have contributed to the child ending up in a home; at present, there is one 14 year old awaiting a bone marrow transplant and another who was born with heart problems and no anus, who has also required numerous surgeries…

Whilst in Valencia, one of my friends, Dinorah, also kindly arranged a social get together with AVANICA volunteers. They work with children who have cancer but who also come from very poor economic backgrounds, which inevitably leads to complications with their treatment.

As well as the project visits though, I also managed a quick trip to La Entrada with my hostfamily\friends for ´tequeños de jojoto´, pan de bono and pastelitos with papelon…One of the most amazing memories of this trip though is that, for the first time since 1986, it got so cool I actually put a sweater on in Valencia! Almost impossible to believe of Valencia…It came off again though when we had a puncture and it looked like physical labour might be required…but we were treated as damsels in distress by local hospital staff!

      

     

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