This article from the Guardian shines a light on the "nearly one million 'left-behind' Venezuelan children whose parents have been forced to migrate, leaving their offspring in the care of grandparents, aunts, siblings, neighbours or sometimes even completely alone." The articles shares the story of two young girls whose mother left Venezuela for Guyana in search of opportunities to earn enough money to support her family.
And the impacts of family separation on these left-behind children is often detrimental, says the article. Elvis, "a broken-toothed 12-year-old who sleeps on Ciudad Guayana’s streets," for example, has not attended school for two years. What's more, “there are children who interpret this migration as an abandonment. They feel alone. They feel they have nobody – and this has an undeniable impact on their self-esteem,” said Jannia Orta, a psychologist from Cecodap, a Caracas-based NGO.