Cáritas Venezuela noted in July 2018 that 65% of Venezuelan children already have some degree of malnutrition. ‘Llenemos las ollas’ is a concrete gesture of solidarity that has already produced more than 10,000 plates of food in the South American country
The ‘Llenemos las ollas’ campaign is the best example of solidarity of those who have emigrated from Venezuela. It is the immediate and necessary response to help those who remained and are suffering from hunger. It is an international awareness-raising and fundraising campaign promoted by the Venezuela Association: the piccola Venezia Onlus, which offers concrete support for the realization of ‘Ollas Comunitarias’ (canteens for the most needy) in the South American country suffering an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
Today ‘Llenemos las ollas’ provides economic support to Cáritas Venezuela, with whom it has already executed more than 100 pots in different parts of the country. For example, the pot that is made in the headquarters of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference counts on their collaboration and little by little has been adding other pots in La Guaira, Barinas, San Félix and Barquisimeto. In July 2018, Cáritas Venezuela found that 65% of Venezuelan children already have some degree of malnutrition or were at risk of having it; according to a study that measured global acute malnutrition in 7 areas of the country (Capital District and its most vulnerable areas and the states of Miranda, Vargas, Zulia, Carabobo, Sucre and Lara). A dramatic conclusion: in Venezuela, an oil-producing country, 85% of households are eating inadequate food.
‘Llenemos las ollas’ has been created by Marinellys Tremamunno. An Italian-Venezuelan journalist who emigrated 9 years ago from Venezuela and today is an accredited correspondent for different international media before the Vatican. Along with her profession and the reality in which Venezuela lives, she saw the sad situation in which her native land is now submerged. It is of these people who do not forget their origins and try to support from the diaspora and decided to go beyond journalistic denunciation. In 2017 he created an NGO in Italy to help the most needy in Venezuela, the Italian association Venezuela: the piccola Venezia Onlus, and today he actively promotes solidarity from the Venezuelan diaspora in Italy.
“Thousands of Venezuelans find in the community pots of the church and other social organizations the only way to eat properly. Whether daily, once or twice a week, every fortnight or monthly, according to each reality. These pots are the only way many have to consume protein,” says the social communicator, who graduated from the Central University of Venezuela in 2002.
How can you collaborate with ‘Llenemos las ollas’?
To help expand ‘Ollas Comunitarias’ throughout the country, just visit https://www.gofundme.com/llenemoslasollas and make a small contribution. With only 1€ you can guarantee 2 plates of food, with 15€ you can feed 1 child for 1 month and with 50€ you can make a pot to feed 100 people.
More information can be found at: www.llenemoslasollas.org