Older women, single and dependent on incomes from their meager state pensions, are among those with the highest hurdles to overcome as Venezuelans struggle in a country facing economic hardships. 

Many of them are trying to take care of themselves, and their grandchildren. 

Sixty-year-old pensioner Juana Lopez worked for years as a cleaner in the Caracas subway. She's the matriarch and the caretaker of her family after two of her three children migrated outside the country. Lopez now has six grandchildren in her care, and the money her children send from abroad has become a lifeline.

“Sometimes I feel bad and I want to go to work,” says López, a resident of the Petare slum in Venezuela´s capital. “I’m sorry to depend on them, asking for money to buy something. I’m ashamed."

Like many retired Venezuelans, Lopez depends on a state pension. But she says that’s not enough to put food on the table. 

“I never thought at this point in my life I’d be having such a hard life." 

The Venezuelan government recently increased payments to pensioners from an average of two dollars a month to nearly $30. 

But $30 a month does not go very far. 

One recent survey shows a basket of basic goods in Venezuela costs more than $400 per month. 

Retired secretary Ruth Páez is supplementing her pension dollars working as a seamstress.

She also helps to take care of her grandchildren and says at age 72, she is lucky to have a skill to fall back on. “If you don’t have an additional income or help from others, you are forced to depend on charity from family or friends.” Paéz says the extra income she earns has been a lifesaver for her family.

Most elderly people in Venezuela live in poverty, according to a recent study conducted by the NGO CONVITE, a civil organization based in Caracas that works for the rights of senior citizens.

Luis Francisco Cabezas is the director of CONVITE. He says pensioners in Venezuela struggle to buy food and medicine. “Today, there are a lot of elderly women who live alone and in poverty, but it’s more likely that in the upcoming years, there will be a lot more.” 

Retired from their jobs but not from the need to make ends meet, many older Venezuelans are struggling to take care of their families and living day to day.

CGTN’s Mary Triny Mena reports from Caracas.

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