No medicines or food: retired teachers suffer the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela the most Recent

«I can't take it anymore, I shot the towel, I stay to wait for the end.I can no longer with such loneliness and somuch adversity.Everything is so difficult, ”Carlos de Armas wrote in the Facebook profile of the Social Communication School of the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), on January 26, 2022, from his room in Caracas.

That night, in front of the computer screen, the 63 -year -old teacher believed that the country had a truly cruel face.He had severalmonths asking for help or employment, hinting that hunger was dangerously daily and that he had not bought a new shirt or a couple of shoes formore than 10 years.

Some time ago, weapons was a smiling teacher and convinced that themost essential in the classroom were his students.Two degrees, one in education and the other in social communication, accredited him in front of dozens of young and curious students for 36 years in a row.In 2018, themoral courage, for having been at the head of the "Contemporary Judaism and study of the Shoá Zygmunt and Anna Rotter", received happy, formore than 20 years.

However, the joy slowly vanished the day he dull slowly, and with disbelief, a simple white pasta dish with salt, because he had nomoney to buymeat, cheese or vegetables in early 2021, in themiddle of the pandemicof Covid-19.

Nor could a box of omeprazole,metmorphine, chlorihydrate or clotrimazole or othermedication for your diabetes be paid.It happened shortly after being retired from the UCAB;By then, Carlos insisted that he did not want to leave, but at the university they told him that he should do it.

«It was due to the problems of labor liabilities, all these issues that are complicated for private institutions.I continue to teach in some semesters.They hireme for the period of semester for three or four subjects, depending on the students who register.With the pension and those hours I complementme a little.But the country's situation is so serious, that sometimes one despairs, ”said Cocuyo for weapons.

In February 2021, two UCAB students, Oretta Rodriguez and Alejandra Romero, initiated a fund collection with a 1 goal.$ 500, whomanaged to raise for the teacher.However, in June 2021 the educator posted a job application, ensuring that he could clean foreign houses if necessary, to earn somemoney.Themessage of January 26 lit the alarms of the Ucabistas, who began another campaign to gather food andmedicine for arms.

The National Living Conditions Survey (Encovi) 2021, published by the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), indicates that 31.1 % of the inactive Venezuelan population is composed of retirees.For the second semester of 2021, the Non -Governmental Organization Convite.

There aremillions of scientists, journalists, professors, doctors, nurses, and endless professionals who witnessed the arrival of the new century, but currently receive the equivalent of a sugar.There are thousands who die silently in a country that forgets their grandparents and, therefore, turns your back on your livingmemory.

Neveras vacías en pandemia

"It is a country of old and children," said Anitza Freitez, director of the UCAB Economic and Social Research Institute of Economic and Social Research on Venezuela last year.

According to Encovi, there are currently 65 dependent people for every 100 Venezuelans of age to work, among children under 15 years and over 60 years of age.Already in 2020, Freitez had alerted that due tomigration the nation lost its demographic bonus: the period in which the active population labor exceeds the dependent population.

Edgar Silva Herrera, director of the Human Rights Committee for the Defense of Pensioners, Retirees and Elderly, said that the pension received by Venezuelans of the elderly does not exceed the amount of $ 1.5.According to the Social Documentation and Analysis Center of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (CENDAS), the basic basket cost $ 431.72, by December 2021.

«Thismiserable that the Government cannot be called pension: it is a pyrrhic allocation, which has been granted from 2013 to date.Every year that passes, the gap between the entrance of the pensioners with respect to the food basket has been aggregated, ”Silva explained to Cocuyo.

A large number of Venezuelan elders do not have time to enjoy their old age due to financial concerns and state indifference.Some do not get up preparing themorning coffee, but wondering what they will eat during the day.

«The retired population aspires to access food andmedicine.But in addition, being able to devote to some activity perhaps different from what he used to work in the professional field.To be able to devote himself to the arts, tomusic, to literature ... to somany things he could not do while working.That in Venezuela is not possible, ”said Silva Herrera.

The director pointed out that the committee divides older people into three groups: one that corresponds to the population that does not receive any type of income, approximately onemillion Venezuelans;The second is that of the elderly who worked in private companies and that has only social security pension and the third is one of the retirees of the public administration.

Experts indicate that themost unprotected sectors are those of health and education, which in themselves perceive salaries that do not reach 20 % of the food basket.Once retired, teachers, doctors and nursing staff end up depending on their children, nephews or other relatives to survive, after having dedicated half of a life to the service of the community.

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Virgilio Castillo, president of the Association of Professors of the University of Los Andes (Apula), declared on January 26 that the budget suffocation of the State and the imposition of low salaries has submitted several older adults to truly extreme situations.

Programas de asistencia

According to Manuel García, Social Protection Manager of the Professor's Institute of Pisc.These data were obtained through a survey that García and Nashla Báez, president of Brigadas Azules,made in 2021, together with the Association of Teachers of the UCV.

Manuel and Nashla are in charge of the Direct Food Assistance Program, an initiative that began to develop in January last year, in themiddle of the Coronavirus pandemic, due to the situation of the Ucevist teachers whose salaries range between 5 and 12 dollarsmonthly.

«I started food one day that I get a textmessage where they were asking for food for a UCV retired teacher.I talked to the protectionmanager and told him that whatever he raised would take a Sunday.I began tomovemy networks, Imanaged to gather several things and what wasmy surprise when themanager calledme on Saturday and toldme that the teacher had died.I destroyedmy heart, ”Báez told Cocuyo.

The direct food assistance program has different donation routes from organizations, graduates and other people.Monthly, they get between 300 and 400 kilos of foods that distribute among 100 of the teachers in themost vulnerable situations.

«Many teachers are ashamed and do not want to tell their cases to the press.Some told us that they prefer to give up food tomake their situation public nationwide, ”said Manuel García.

Una vejez indigna

Gladys Carrizal never believed that, then a university career, four courses in Chile and forty years attending patients in hospitals, one day would open the fridge and find it empty.But it happened on December 10, 2021, at 9 p.m., en el oeste caraqueño, y su primer impulso fue cerrar la puerta del refrigerador con fuerza, hasta lastimarse lamano.

He breathed deep, drank a glass of water and waited ten hours for the sun to go out to touch the door to the neighbor of the next apartment, with which he did not get along too well since he had use of reason.

«¿Me puede prestar un poquitito de Harina PAN, que seme acaba de terminar? Yo le repongo luego», Gladys preguntó en voz baja y con las orejas rojas.

Lamujer lamiró extrañada por unos segundos, pero luego frunció el ceño, entró hasta la cocina y salió con una bolsa de plástico llena de harina demaíz.The nurse took her quickly and thanked, before returning to her own home. Preparó dos arepas con rapidez,midiendo el agua con cautela para que lamasa no se aguara demasiado, y las devoró apresurada.

"It was so humiliating. No tenía ni para comprar unmango. Creo que esa noche lloré como si seme hubiesemuerto alguien. Y al final sí, sentí queme habíanmatado la dignidad.I am 70 years old.No one should feel like this at 70, ”said Carrizal.

Su única hijamurió en 2016, en un accidente de tránsito. El resto de su familia directa, sus hermanosmayores, fallecieron antes que ella.Her nephews have not called her for three years, but she knows that they are somewhere in Costa Rica.

«Al final, terminas esperandomorir también.It is a horrible thought, I know.But, at this age and with this country roll, what are I supposed to do, ”said Carrizal.He got a job cleaning a house near Prados del Este, in Caracas, in January 2022.

«La señora queme contrató lo hizo por lástima.I know. Pero esmuy amable yme gano quince dólares a la semana.So I can survive with that. Le compré una Harina Pan completa ami vecina», contó.

Pactos con la soledad

Pedro Salinas is an agronomist who graduated from the Central University of Venezuela in 1962. Obtuvo un Diploma del Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, de la Universidad de Londres (1966) y un MSc de lamisma universidad en 1972.Since 1968 he is a professor of the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Sciences and the ULA School of Medicine.

Salinas's curriculum is especially wide.Therefore, the outrage and surprise lit social networks when the teacher was found by university firefighters in their residence located in Mérida, next to the body of his wife and also a university professional, Ysbelia Hernández, on January 23.

Mientras una primera versión aseguraba que el anciano se encontraba en un severo estado de desnutrición, su nieta, Delia Salinas,migrante en Reino Unido, desmintió que su abuelo estuviese abandonado. Explicó que el hombre había experimentado una deshidratación producto del tiempo que pasó junto a su parejamuerta sin levantarse.

A pesar del comunicado en que insistía que Salinas contaba con una nevera llena de alimentos ymantenía contacto con su familia en el exterior, el caso fue unamuestra de lo solitarios que están algunos adultosmayores, producto de la diáspora venezolana.En total, 5,7millones de venezolanos habrían salido hasta ahora del país a distintas partes delmundo, apuntó Amnistía Internacional.

Según la Encovi, el 90 % de los que abandonan Venezuela en busca demejores condiciones de vida son hombres ymujeres entre los 15 y los 49 años.

The writer Gabriel García Márquez said that the secret of a happy old age is "an honored pact with loneliness," but in Venezuela the phrase does not apply: Venezuelan grandparents and grandmothers have been forced to be alone in a nation that seems to have no timeFor them, without the possibility of own income.In the country there is no pact, but an imposition that continues to be extended without a solution that is glimpsed in the short term.