Venezuela Food Boxes
While on a mission trip a few years ago, Gaby and Valerie were delivering bunkbeds to a family living in poverty in a rural village. Gaby looked at Valerie with tears in her eyes and said, "This is exactly how families in Venezuela live.” Valerie proceeded to tell her that she could do the same type of thing that FTLOM does in Guatemala, but for Venezuela. And so this is where the idea of this outreach project took life.
Gaby explained that due to what is going on with their government in Venezuela it is not safe to travel there and do what we do, BUT she explained to me that a new study that just came out revealed that the economic crisis in Venezuela is so bad that 75% of the population of Venezuela has lost on an average of 19lbs of weight with over 1/3 of the population eating less than 2 meals a day due to the over inflation prices of food. I explained to her that even though we may not be able to do the same type of thing we do in Guatemala, she could still do something to help with their food situation.
After that conversation, For the Love of Mateo started giving donations to Gaby to help buy food to send to Venezuela or to pay for the shipping of boxes to Venezuela. She has trusted contacts in Venezuela that her and her daughter, Laura, ship the food to, that goes and personally delivers the food to children in orphanages as well as communities where it is safe to bring in food. Gaby has taken it upon herself to not only donate her own money, but also to reach out to her own friends and contacts that she has to collect food and personal care necessitates to ship to Venezuela.
It costs about $55 to ship one box to Venezuela, so For the Love of Mateo will have an option to set up a recurring payment to cover the cost of the shipment fee to Venezuela, in addition to options to donate a recurring amount to use towards food or personal care items that are needed. There is also an option to make a onetime donation.
Gaby is a dear friend of Valerie Edwards, in addition to being an advisory member on For the Love of Mateo’s board, a translator for our mission trips, and loyal and servant heart.
If you are interested in purchasing specific foods or personal care items yourself and then shipping them to Gaby directly, you can email her at gaby.envp@gmail.com to get her mailing address.
After you've purchased this sponsorship, to be added to the FTLOM Sponsorship List and be assigned a child, please send an email to Val Edwards at envpvaledwards@outlook.com and mention that you've purchased this sponsorship.
