NEW YEAR FUNDRAISING

Venezuela was once one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America. But within the last five years, the economy has completely collapsed. The low price of oil has crippled the country’s main source of wealth, after years of economic mismanagement. Inflation is in the quadruple digits, and 80 percent of the population is now in poverty.

Hugo Chávez was elected in 1998 after two failed coup attempts that left hundreds dead. He promised a new country with equality, without poverty, where people would have dignity and a voice. But shortly after his election, Chávez expropriated and nationalized farms and factories and gave them to political cronies who had no idea how to run them. Chávez also imposed currency exchange controls in 2003, though he was warned that it would destroy the economy and create corruption. Chávez accused farmers and business owners of wanting to exploit the poor and imposed price controls for food and other supplies. Local producers could not compete with heavily subsidized goods purchased with oil money, and many went bankrupt. Meanwhile, people in government were making millions of dollars with bribes from foreign companies that got twice the market rate for food exports.

So the collapse of the last few years has not been a surprise to us. Though Chávez is now dead, his regime continues through his successor, Nicolás Maduro. We have no food, no medicine, electricity is failing, internet access is slowly disappearing and forgotten diseases are coming back. For years, we had oil money to mask the signs of that demise. With the oil money now gone, the effects of negligence, corruption and fanaticism are now obvious. Years ago, this was clear to many, but now even most of the fiercest supporters of the Chavista government can no longer defend it.

Rather than remaining passive on the face of this humanitarian crisis, we have decided to do whatever we can to help and enable others to have the same opportunities abroad than we did. We have created the Salto Project, an organization that gives Venezuelans the resources to relocate to other countries.

Salto is not about helping people to survive, but to thrive. Why should people be only refugees when they can be so much more? Many Venezuelans are very hard working, talented, really well educated. They deserve a chance. They will bloom and contribute to their host countries, to their companies, to their labs, universities, art centers. Many of us are doing well in our new countries, and we know that many others can do even better.

We already have helped multiple individuals and families from all walks of life. Academics, service workers, doctors, accountants, everyone in Venezuela is being affected by the horrible crisis caused by the destruction of the economy that the Venezuelan govt presided. With very few donors and the personal resources of our founders, Salto has been able to help almost 100 people in total, over two years. The magnitude of this tragedy is beyond the reach of any individual, and certainly we cannot fix the problem, but we can still make a difference. Please enable us to keep giving hope in the middle of this tragedy. Donate to Salto, and tell your friends to donate as well: you can make a major difference in the lives of people who need it most.