Yes I am a number. I am also one of the millions of Venezuelans that suffered from violence on the streets of Caracas; violence that did not care if I was educated or had a career or had a family. Everyday living emotionally torn between the love for my city and the fear of not making it back to my home. The fear of being robbed again at gunpoint or being beaten again on the street, knowing that I have already been robbed 10 times trying to support my family, just praying that if it happens again I will not be killed. I could not become one of the 26,000 people that get senselessly murdered there every year. I could not let that next robbery leave my family without support and my child without a mother. Sometimes you don’t have the choices you want.
And let’s be clear about this: I didn’t choose to run away from my country, my paradise, I chose to save myself and my family from starvation, from the uncertainty of what to eat daily, from the lack of medicines and medical care, from risking my life waiting on an endless line hoping to get food and supplies for my family only to have them stolen by the police. I chose to walk away from the violence that kept me captive in my apartment, fearing being a target for being who I am, fearing being kidnapped again. I chose to walk away from the lack of future; from feeling powerless.
I now choose to do something about it. And there are two million more of me. I am not alone. None of us are. We can do something about it. We can heal by sharing our stories; both good and bad. We can heal by sharing our pain with the world. We can start taking action and make things change for good.
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