The state fails to fulfill its obligations with private homes

The Venezuelan state sends the minors to private care institutions on court orders, without allocating a public budget, accompanying them or limiting their stay. He got divorced from his obligations.

Valencia. When Simón begins to cough, the children of the shelter are afraid, no one wants to see him like that afternoon, when Mama Rosa picked him up in her arms, agitated, with her lips as purple as grapes, as she ran in the rain towards the clinic. Since then, Pope José has ordered it Seed of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, one of the family homes in Carabobo, the nebulizer is close at hand, but today, checking the shelf, he realized that there is only one flu shot and that the few bolivars he has are not enough to buy at the pharmacy.

In Venezuela, 70% of families cannot guarantee basic medical care, nor can they ever buy medicines because the costs are very high; national health insurers have disappeared or have reduced their attention and in an emergency only 15% of these have the means to move.

The data presented by the executive director of the Asociación Civil Red de Casas Don Bosco, Leonardo Rodríguez Angola, reflect how the economic, political and institutional crisis that the country is going through directly affects the mechanisms that private health authorities need to access essential public services.

The budget of charitable entities is undergoing a shift from being priced in bolivars to dollars, and giving birth to a million bolivars is not the same as a thousand dollars to meet health, food, clothing and educational services. The quality of life of children is at risk and the state continues to dictate protective measures during the pandemic, ”Rodríguez Angola warned.

“Everyone for himself”
The precariousness of inputs and resources led social organizations in 2015 to ask the Deputy Ministry for the Supreme Social Happiness of the People for food for children deprived of parental care, but the response of the then manager, Carolina Cestari, is been and a real warning: “They must understand and see how they searched for food for themselves.”

To date, no state body has been tasked with providing food to homes. All private care directors declare that they are not participating in any protection programs. According to Leonardo Rodríguez, also a member of the Network for the human rights of boys, girls and adolescents (Redhnna), both the Office of the Ombudsman, the Ministry of Food and the municipal councils are watching.

The children who are in a care institution are there because the state sends them, no one can have them there without a provision issued by a court of protection of the Republic. We don’t go out on the street looking for them, ”Rodríguez recalled.

In the absence of government support, the foundations provide some supplies. The infant’s diet appears to be reduced to pasta, rice and cereals, the latter being the presentation of Chinese beans that the government sells at a discount in its Clap boxes. “Sometimes they just eat Chinese beans with rice and other times, if there is no seasoning, they eat it alone.”

Growing up in the dark and without certainties
In Mérida and Táchira, homes have been without electricity for up to six consecutive days, a situation that leads to the loss of refrigerated food. Leonardo Rodríguez reported that in the Libertador municipality of the capital district and in Puerto La Cruz, in the state of Anzoátegui, they reported having been without water for two months in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Without domestic gas, there were also institutions located in the states of Lara, Carabobo, Mérida, Trujillo, Táchira and Portuguesa. The staff chose to build kitchen stoves, but obtaining firewood and preventing the smoke from affecting the health of the children was a very difficult task.

We stop buying goods and services to buy food and medicine, not even clothing is an option right now. Kids are without air conditioners because repairs go from $ 300. We don’t know how we will pay for their education because tuition fees are set in dollars and there is no good internet. If the health care institutions do not convince donors to contribute dollars, we will enter a very serious crisis process ”, Rodríguez assured.

For the president of the Association of Advisers for the Protection of Children and Adolescents in Venezuela (Asonacop), Lili Torres, the lack of fuel has prevented citizens from accessing the protection systems.

“People often have to walk and it’s very long distances. Recently, a councilor died in the state of Bolívar and another resigned immediately (…) programs are urgently needed to address the health situation of children and adolescents; and strengthen the family “.

Violation of rights

The foster homes must help and temporarily house minors deprived of parental life in difficult and painful conditions. The doctor of social sciences and coordinator of the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence, Gloria Perdomo, warned that for no reason should her destiny be to live and grow within an institution.

They must provide conditions of safety and provision of services, resources and material and psychological assistance so that no more harm is generated than what they already suffer. Failing to fulfill these obligations, he said, violates their right to be cared for and protected by the families they belong to.

The first responsible is the Venezuelan state, not when the Office of the Ombudsman wants or when the National Council for Rights deems it appropriate; You must have an up-to-date register of care institutions and know who the children are there, why they are and what the situation is for their immediate family reintegration, ”said Perdomo.

In the event that the budgets of the institutions were precarious, the coordinator of the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence indicated that the State is obliged to request humanitarian aid, as established by Article 4 of the Human Rights Convention.

“If they are not dealt with in a timely manner, the fate of the country is compromised; If we do not have resources that allow a complete diet, a childhood education, after 15 years we will have, unfortunately, a society made up of dependent people without economic and intellectual skills. We are mutilating the opportunities that ensure the country’s progress and well-being. It will be a lost generation, ”he said.