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Venezuela is one of the richest countries in Latin America.
Natural resources are plentiful, and the government sponsors
many social programs. This leads many to the question: why does
Venezuela need volunteers and social development? While many
Venezuelans live comfortably, there are many others who
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neglected. Resources can never be divided equally, and social
programs don't reach every citizen. Particularly in a region
such as La Gran Sabana, many Venezuelans are largely forgotten.
Our educational programs reach many children in communities
which despite of
the wealth of Venezuela, lack infrastructure or resources to
properly promote education to youth and to make sure that
children attend schools.
Beyond this, Fundacion Aldeas de Paz takes the view that it is
important to focus on serving a few people really well. As
everywhere in Venezuela it is not hard in Santa Elena and the
Gran Sabana to find children with special needs and youth at
risk who are not attended and can really benefit from assistance
such as that provided by Fundacion Aldeas de Paz and which is
not coming from government or other sources at the moment. We
are therefore currently building a multi-faceted Therapy
Center to help local children through a number of different
therapies, skills training, and fun activities.
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With
respect to the environment, La Gran Sabana is one of the most
beautiful and diverse regions in the world, yet it will not stay
this way forever and the efforts of Fundacion Aldeas de Paz and
its Volunteers to change people's views about pollution, how
they deal with their garbage and so on, along with the hands on
efforts of things like tree planting small but important here in
La Gran Sabana as much as elsewhere.
Finally, as in so many parts of the world, indigenous people
(the so-called "Fourth World") continue to live in difficult
situations in Venezuela. Fundacion Aldeas de Paz works with the
indigenous villages of the region, which have a longer term plan
of creating respectful small-scale tourism to provide an income
to some of its citizens and to develop the community. Our
volunteers are helping in this process firstly through
cross-cultural exchange and secondly through their volunteer
work in the community.
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