New Mission Sons and Daughters of Venezuela to Provide Savings and Benefits to Children

Mérida, December 13^th 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Yesterday President Hugo Chavez used the still current enabling law to pass a law which creates the Great Mission Sons and Daughters of Venezuela.

The social program aims to provide economic help to pregnant women, families with children under the age of 18, and families with children of any age who have a disability. Economic support will go to those in a state of critical poverty, defined by the government as a family income below the minimum wage (Bs 1,548 or US$ 360).

The new law creates the Superior Office Sons and Daughters of Venezuela, which will be headed by Chavez and coordinated by Yadira Cordova, vice president of the social unit of the ministers’ council.

The mission will assign Bs 430 (US$ 100) per month to pregnant teenagers, as well as to up to three children per family living in extreme poverty. Families who have a member with a disability to look after will receive Bs 600 (US$ 139.50).

Registration for the mission begins today in some states of the country. Seven hundred groups of four people each will visit houses in twelve states of the country as well as the capital territory in order to register possible recipients of the entitlement.

Each group of four will consist of one representative of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), a spokesperson of the Mothers of the Neighbourhood Mission, a member of the youth group Francisco de Miranda Front, and an Integral Community Medicine doctor.

Chavez also signed a fund for family saving and social investment into creation. The fund involves an initial contribution of Bs 10,000 (US$ 2325) by the government plus a 10% contribution per month by the family. For those families receiving the government benefits, 10% will be taken out of that total amount each month and put towards savings.

The money contributed by the government comes from dividends of Areperas Venezuela, the Bank of Venezuela, and from the ports, said Chavez.

Mary Moreno, vice minister of communes and social protection, emphasised that the benefits are temporary, “they’ll be a help, until the people can improve their quality of life”.

Today Chavez also launched a similar mission, this one for the elderly, called Mission Venezuela in Greater Love, a pun on the Spanish word ‘mayor’ which means both ‘older’ and ‘greater’. The mission aims to guarantee that all elderly people receive a pension.

Poverty in Venezuela has decreased from 49.0% in 1998 to 27.4% at the start of this year, and extreme poverty has decreased over the same period from 21.0% to 7.3%.