Venezuelan children face malnutrition amid economic crisis

Venezuela's economic crisis is taking a toll on the country's children.

December 23, 2019, 8:56 AM

Last August, Francys Rivero, an unemployed single mother of four, feared for her baby's life. Two months after his birth, even though she was breastfeeding him regularly, Kenai de Jesus wasn't gaining weight.

PHOTO: Francys Rivero holds her two-month-old son Kenai, who has been diagnosed with malnutrition, while he receives a blood test at a clinic in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 14, 2019.
Francys Rivero holds her two-month-old son Kenai, who has been diagnosed with malnutrition, while he receives a blood test at a clinic in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 14, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

"I feel like my heart is breaking," Rivero, 32, told Reuters in an interview from the capital of the western Venezuelan state of Lara. "I don't know what's wrong with my son."

She tried repeatedly to see nutritionists, but failed. One didn't show up, another required a month-long wait. Desperate, Rivero attended a charity event offering checkups and information for families of children with nutritional problems.

PHOTO: Francys Rivero holds her two-month-old son Kenai, who has been diagnosed with malnutrition, while they wait to be seen at a special event for children with nutritional problems, at a church in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 10, 2019.
Francys Rivero holds her two-month-old son Kenai, who has been diagnosed with malnutrition, while they wait to be seen at a special event for children with nutritional problems, at a church in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 10, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

At the event, organized by Caritas, the Catholic aid organization, doctors performed a checkup. With donations from the charity, and financial assistance from siblings now living abroad, Rivero began supplementing her breast milk with baby formula.

PHOTO: Francys Rivero holds her five-month-old son Kenai, who recovered from malnutrition, while talking to her sons Collins, 11, and Enmanuel, 2, outside their home in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 27, 2019.
Francys Rivero holds her five-month-old son Kenai, who recovered from malnutrition, while talking to her sons Collins, 11, and Enmanuel, 2, outside their home in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 27, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Within weeks, Kenai rebounded. By December, he reached an acceptable weight for his age. But Rivero, like many enduring a recession now in its sixth year, fears she could once again find herself short of the money needed to keep him healthy.

"How am I going to afford such expensive food?" she asked.

PHOTO: Pastor Suarez, 3, who was hospitalised a few months before for being malnourished according to his mother, touches available food displayed on a bed for a photo at his house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 28, 2019.
Pastor Suarez, 3, who was hospitalised a few months before for being malnourished according to his mother, touches available food displayed on a bed for a photo at his house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 28, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Venezuela's economic crisis is taking a crippling toll on the country's children, who face a growing risk of malnutrition as basic food is increasingly out of reach for many families. The public health system, notoriously short of medicine and other standard supplies, is unable to provide much assistance, and aid groups struggle to bridge the gap.

PHOTO: Sonia, seven moths old, who has diarrhoea and is underweight according to her mother, rests on a bed after bathing at her house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 16, 2019.
Sonia, seven moths old, who has diarrhoea and is underweight according to her mother, rests on a bed after bathing at her house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 16, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

President Nicolas Maduro, increasingly a global pariah for undermining democracy and overseeing the country's economic collapse, blames the crisis and food shortages on U.S. sanctions meant to force him from power.

The leader, also accused of overseeing widespread human-rights abuses and turning a blind eye to suffering across the once-prosperous country, often says foreign media and global aid organizations exaggerate Venezuela's problems.

PHOTO: Gregoria Hernandez feeds pasta and rice for lunch to her daughter Sonia, who was hospitalised a couple of months ago for malnutrition, at their house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 28, 2019.
Gregoria Hernandez feeds pasta and rice for lunch to her daughter Sonia, who was hospitalised a couple of months ago for malnutrition, at their house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 28, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

A lack of proper nutrition is stunting growth, diminishing cognitive development and causing physical and emotional trauma among hundreds of thousands of young Venezuelans. As a result, doctors and other health experts argue, Venezuela faces a generation of young people who will never meet their full physical or mental potential.

Between 2013 and 2018, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, 13% of the country's children suffered from malnutrition. Caritas, in a recent study conducted in five Venezuelan states and the capital, Caracas, found that 16% of children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition and that nearly twice as many suffer from low growth rates for their age.

PHOTO: Mist travels through a slum in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 15, 2019.
Mist travels through a slum in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 15, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Although the United Nations and other agencies import some food and nutritional aid, it isn't enough for Venezuela's needs and the assistance doesn't always get where it is most required. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has raised just a third of the $222.7 million it sought for Venezuela for the second half of 2019, according to official U.N. data.

"A population suffering from malnutrition implies we are going to have adults with less physical and intellectual potential," said Raquel Mendoza, a nutritionist at Mapani, an aid group in Barquisimeto that helps poor families diagnose and treat malnourished children. "We're going to see a regression in the development of the country because human resources are diminished."

PHOTO: Deina Alvarez, 6, who is underweight for her age according to her mother Diana Rodriguez, and is undergoing treatment for malnutrition at the non-profit organization Mapani, draws a picture at her house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 27, 2019.
Deina Alvarez, 6, who is underweight for her age according to her mother Diana Rodriguez, and is undergoing treatment for malnutrition at the non-profit organization Mapani, draws a picture at her house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 27, 2019. Rodriguez says the family provides Deina and her brother Anderson simple meals like rice and beans each day. But that often requires that she and her husband sacrifice their epilepsy medication, meaning they can't leave their homes out of fear of suffering a seizure on the street. "Either we pay for medicine or we pay for food," said Rodriguez.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Venezuela's Information Ministry, responsible for government communications, including those of the Health Ministry, didn't respond to requests for comment.

The ministry's 2016 annual report, the last one it published, celebrated advances in nutrition since the 1980s and said child malnutrition "has stopped being a public health problem."

PHOTO: Deina Alvarez, 6, who is undergoing treatment for malnutrition, plays with Venezuelan bolivar notes that have been made worthless by hyperinflation, at her house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 27, 2019.
Deina Alvarez, 6, who is undergoing treatment for malnutrition, plays with Venezuelan bolivar notes that have been made worthless by hyperinflation, at her house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 27, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

For those without enough to eat, the problem is very real.

Rosa Rojas, a 32-year-old widow and mother of six, relies on rice and other carbohydrates to keep her kids fed. Rare is the day they get three full meals. "We just eat twice," she said.

PHOTO: Rosa Rojas and her son Jose Maria, 6, who according to her is underweight for his age and has been diagnosed with malnutrition, pose for a picture at their house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 8, 2019.
Rosa Rojas and her son Jose Maria, 6, who according to her is underweight for his age and has been diagnosed with malnutrition, pose for a picture at their house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 8, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Gregoria Hernandez, a 23-year-old homemaker, recently hospitalized two young sons, Pastor and Josue Suarez, because they were malnourished. Shortly after their release, Sonia, her 7-month-old daughter, needed similar medical help.

"I feel like the worst of mothers," Hernandez told Reuters.

"I don't have a way to help them, to give them what they need."

Sometimes, families are torn between competing needs.

PHOTO: Gregoria Hernandez, 23, sits next to her seven-moth-old daughter Sonia, who according to her has diarrhoea and is underweight, while resting on a bed in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 16, 2019.
Gregoria Hernandez, 23, sits next to her seven-moth-old daughter Sonia, who according to her has diarrhoea and is underweight, while resting on a bed in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 16, 2019.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Deina Alvarez, a 6-year-old student and aspiring gymnast, is underweight and receiving nutritional supplements from a local charity. Although her parents both work, they don't earn enough to fill a grocery cart and buy the medicines they both need as epileptics.

"Either we pay for medicine or we pay for food," said Diana Rodriguez, Deina's mother.

Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Keren Torres for Reuters