Chicago ALBA Solidarity has a $1000 match for the Manitos Children’s Fund, which focuses on the children of Venezuela who are suffering most under US sanctions, now an economic blockade. They are not getting enough to eat and many are sick or dying from lack of access to medicine.
The Manitos Children’s Fund works directly with Venezuelan groups to provide materials they require such as food and supplies for growing food, and medications. Where possible, we buy food such as black beans from Nicaraguan farm cooperatives affiliated with the farmworkers union ATC (Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo).
So far $16,000 has been raised to supply the first shipment of food, and we are collecting the funds needed for the transportation from Nicaragua to Venezuela.
Unilateral sanctions such as those imposed by the United States are illegal and considered an act of war. Under the Trump Administration, sanctions have been turned into a slow, deadly weapon of war. It is not government officials who suffer when the US imposes illegal sanctions, but children, the elderly, the sick.
Sanctions target the most vulnerable sectors of society by raising the cost of food and preventing access to lifesaving medications. Sanctions are intended to make life unbearable so the people of the sanctioned country rise up and replace their leadership with someone the US supports.
For Venezuela, billions of dollars in oil sales are blocked and the country’s access to its gold reserves and assets around the world are frozen. The blockade prevents the Venezuelan government from importing food and medicine even though they can pay for it.
According to a study done by the Center for Economic Policy Research and economist Jeffrey Sachs, in 2017 and 2018 US sanctions contributed to the deaths of 40,000 Venezuelans who were unable to get medicines and medical procedures.You can help right now by making a tax-deductible donation to Manitos Children’s Fund/AFGJ.
Make sure you put “Chicago” in the memo section of your check or on your credit card contribution, the first $1000 of these donations will be matched.
Thanks,
Stan Smith
Chicago ALBA Solidarity 