By: Valentina Palm / Asst. News Director
Luisana Zambrano wants to help the country she fled 4 years ago, but her on-campus efforts with the FIU Venezuelan Student Alliance, such as bake sales and soccer game donations seemed to have minimal impact on Venezuela’s acute crisis.
Now, a 13.5 million dollar initiative might give Zambrano and anyone with an innovative idea the chance to actually make a difference.
“Its an excellent project for us so we can take an idea and turn it into action,” said Zambrano, an International Relations senior. “One of the biggest gaps is when someone has an idea and there’s no funding for you to execute that idea.”
The “Juntos Es Mejor” or “Better Together” challenge is a joint initiative launched by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to fund projects aiding Venezuelan communities in and out of the country.
FIU has more than 2,000 students of Venezuelan descent, said President Mark B. Rosenberg at the initiative’s launch held Monday Oct. 21 at the Modesto Maidique campus.
But, according to Rosenberg, many are coming for the wrong reasons.
“There are no opportunities at this point on their homeland,” said Rosenberg “But, as long as we can work with those students, we will take advantage of their hard work and we’ll give them the education they deserve.”
Zambrano believes there are two realities facing Venezuelans that still live there.
“Everyone is affected,” said Zambrano. “But there are people that still trying to work and people who are just barely surviving.”
Like Zambrano, more than 4.8 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland escaping its aggravating economic and humanitarian crisis.
Daily, Venezuelan residents struggle to find and afford basic need products like food, water and non-prescription medicines. Diseases plague the country with a dying health care system and illness once thought eliminated like measles and malaria are resurging.
Only 30 percent of Venezuelans inside the country have access to safe drinking water, according to an IDB study.
Educational and professional opportunities are even scarcer.
Venezuela is suffering the world’s largest economic collapse outside of war in the last 45 years, according to USAID.
Production in the country’s private and public sector are minimal, 90 of the population lives in poverty, currency is devalued to a degree where cash is worthless and inflation is projected to be of 10 million percent by the end of the year.
But Venezuela’s national crisis is now considered a regional crisis due to its impact spread toward its neighboring countries.
3.5 million Venezuelans refugees have walked, flown and rode buses to Latin American countries such as Colombia, Ecuador and Peru lacking resources to handle the mass migration – the largest external displacement of people in the continent’s history.
Unprecedented Venezuelan migration has social and economic impacts on Latin American and Caribbean nations. Changes in the workforce, scarce public services and infrastructure have triggered tension in community relationships and prompted immigration policy amendments.
The “Better Together Challenge” is a platform for students, faculty, startups, corporations and nonprofit organizations to secure funds for short and long-term solutions that alleviate challenges inside the country and by hosting nations.
Participants can submit their ideas in four categories: personal development; increasing refugee productivity creating job opportunities; improving saturated urban services such as education, health and energy; and finance for the improvement of capital transactions.
To achieve funding, ideas must be innovative, targeting a specific community problem and be sustainable.
They offers four funding levels. Development of ideas and initial testing are funded up to $25,000.
The pilot process of a solution prototype can receive up to $250,000 and sequentially $500,000 if successful.
Lastly, proven commercially profitable solutions and public sector partnerships can be awarded up to $1.5 million.
Anyone, from anywhere around the world can submit ideas on the https://juntosesmejorve.org website where regional problems are also posted.
USAID and the IDB will also host activities in Venezuela and neighboring countries to identify their challenges in individual community.
“Why not rely on citizens and to bring the solutions the region so desperately needs,” said Rosenberg.
Republican and Democrat congressional representatives Mario Diaz-Balart, Debbie Wasserman Shults, Debbie Mucarsel Powel and Ted Dutch also attended the launch of the event.
For Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, the fall of socialist regimes choking Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia is critical for the development of the continent.
“The goal and solution in the best interest for the United States, Cuba and the entire hemisphere is to eliminate the socialist cancer,” said Diaz Balart in Spanish.
An emotional recount of the current situation on the Venezuelan border was given by Carlos Vecchio, the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States appointed by Juan Guaido.
“Divided families, mothers who have to choose which children to feed,” said Vecchio “People waking from Cucuta to Lima, that is like walking from Miami to San Francisco. We need to improve conditions around in the region for the communities hosting Venezuelans.”
Congresswoman Debbie Wassmerman Shultz believes crisis is not a strong enough word to describe the situation in venezuela.
“Maduro is literally starving his people,” said Wasserman Shultz.“The world needs to see the Maduro regime for what it is and fight anti-democratic criminal regimes that inflict horrific suffering on its own people.”
Veccio also thanked the Trump administration and congressional representatives at the event for the support given to the Venezuelan people.
“We will never forget this moment,” said Vecchio but emphasized a change in government is necessary for Venezuela to emerge from the crisis.
“The way to resolve this is we take Maduro out of power, he has to go, we need to end this suffering now, now,” said Vecchio “But while we restore democracy in Venezuela, we also need to focus on the humanitarian crisis as it could become the largest refugee crisis in the world if Maduro continues in power.”
For Vecchio the “Better Together Challenge” the type of initiative that gives him hope toward reconstruction in Venezuela.
“It is in times of great adversity that we show the greatness of humanity and this is an example of that,” said Vecchio.
About Post Author
