Venezuelan Government Approves Increase of 80% in Grants for Women Workers in “Food Houses”

*Food houses provide two meals a day in areas of extreme poverty and are part of the Bolivarian government’s initiatives to eliminate absolute poverty. They are a government-community partnership wherein the government supplies food and kitchen equipment and members of the community take charge of cooking and serving the meals for the community from their houses.

During a meeting of Venezuelan ministers in the Miraflores Palace, Caracas, Chávez stated that the increase in these grants will come from the profits generated by the Venezuelan National Public Telephone Company (CANTV).

“For this increase we are going to use the dividends from CANTV, from which we have more than a billion bolivars” he said.

The head of state said that there were 6000 food houses throughout the country with more than 30,000 mothers preparing the meals.

“With the increase of 80% in these grants we will need 98.3 million bolivars in order to pay off what we need for the rest of the year, as well as the Christmas bonus” he explained.

Chávez indicated that this was a fair measure, as the food houses are in line with the ‘transition programmes’ in the country, which include mothers from unemployed families.

“The Venezuela of 2002 – when poverty was very great – isn’t the same as the Venezuela that we are building little by little” said Chávez.

The women who collaborate in the food houses project received 372 bolivars ($87 US) on a monthly basis, as a result of this announcement they will now receive 670 bolivars ($155 US) as recognition of their contribution to society.

Translated by Rachael Boothroyd for Venezuelanalysis.com