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CorruptionVenezuela

Venezuela - Land of Lost Children

September 16, 2024

Corruption and mismanagement have turned Venezuela into a failed state. According to the UN, by November 2023, more than seven million people had fled the country. Some one million children were left behind, alone.

https://p.dw.com/p/4jYnJ
Dokumentation " Venezuela - Land der verlassenen Kinder"
Image: Java
Carolina Leal, single mother and founder of a foundation to combat child malnutrition in Santa Rosa
Carolina Leal, single mother and founder of a foundation to combat child malnutrition in Santa Rosa (district of Maracaibos).Image: Java

The film shows the fate of two single mothers who do everything they can to get by, taking care of themselves and their children. In Maracaibo's Santa Rosa de Agua district, health care has collapsed and children are starving. Carolina has set up a foundation to combat child malnutrition.

Dormitory of the girls' boarding school in Maracaibo where traumatized children are cared for.
Dormitory of the girls' boarding school in Maracaibo where traumatized children are cared for.Image: Java

Because there is so much violence in Santa Rosa, Carolina has placed her own daughter in a home in a safer part of the city. The home is an oasis in the midst of chaos. But many of the children here have not seen their parents for years and are severely traumatized. 

Portrait of Kiara sitting in a hammock.
Kiara, a single mother, has already done everything a woman can do for her children.Image: Java

Most people in the Santa Rosa district survive by resorting to violence, crime, prostitution and begging. "I've had to do so much for my children," says Kiara. "Selling drugs, stealing, prostituting myself. Everything a woman can do for her children." Her eldest son Yorbenis is 14 and has already joined a gang. 

Kiara with her three children sitting close together in a truck heading for Colombia.
Kiara with her children on the run to Colombia.Image: Java

Out of desperation, Kiara decides to leave the country for Colombia. She takes her two youngest children with her, while Yorbenis stays behind alone. Now she’s afraid that he’ll be murdered in her absence.

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SAT 28.09.2024 – 11:03 UTC
SAT 28.09.2024 – 22:03 UTC
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