Venezuela: “We’re Living Worse Than in a War”

The Fellowship  |  June 21, 2016

Of all the suffering people in all the struggling places around the globe, Venezuela has been spotlighted in the news of late. CBC News reports that the people of the South American nation find their lives worsening each day:

The outlook for Venezuela appears to be dimming every day, and it’s not just because of the country’s daily four-hour mandatory blackouts.

The oil-exporting South American country is caught in a perfect storm of droughts, food and power shortages, and devastating inflation and recession caused by plummeting crude prices.

“We’re not at war and we’re living worse than in a war situation,” Becky Jordan, a private school teacher in Caracas, told CBC’s The Current. “I really have no idea how much longer people can take this.”

Yet as The Fellowship and our faithful supporters continue to provide aid and aliyah (immigration to Israel) to Jews around the world, Venezuela’s Jewish community are receiving our focused attention, as witnessed by the story of these two olim (immigrants):

Alejandro and Maria weren’t just thinking of their own futures when they made aliyah from Venezuela. They were thinking of the future of their 6-year-old daughter Anna.

Alejandro says there are many problems in Venezuela. “The current president is a communist. There are financial problems in the country. Anti-Semitism has become an issue. There’s no security in the country. People can’t go out and walk in the streets after 6 PM because there’s so much crime. You can’t find medicines there. The young people just want to leave.”

For all of these reasons, the small family rejoiced when their Freedom Flight from South America arrived in the Holy Land. To all of the Fellowship’s friends, Alejandro says, “I’m so happy to be in Israel. I just want to thank you for all of the help you’ve given my family.”