The actress Liliana Meléndez relieves the loneliness of older adults, parents and grandparents of migrant children and grandchildren, with support and quality time
Sasha Ascanio, from the New Journalists Training Program
Between 2017 and 2019, according to the Venezuelan Immigration Observatory (OVM), 2.7 million Venezuelans left the country and, according to Encovi 2023, it was estimated that, within that same period, three out of every five migrants were between 15 and 29 years old. years. The young emigration left behind a large elderly population in their country of origin and Liliana Meléndez, Venezuelan actress, made it her duty to take care of those who stayed.
“I said, well, I’m going to grab and make “Special Services” a reality, a venture that accompanies and assists older adults in their daily tasks of going out shopping, to the pharmacy, to the doctor, to buy clothes. , to the theater,” explained Meléndez. “This is very dedicated to the children he has of his older adults here in Venezuela,” he pointed out.
The TV, theater and film actress said that she made “Special Services” a reality under a concept of human support rather than medical support. “It is an accompaniment and I always clarify that I do not take care, but rather I accompany, assist and listen,” the actress clarifies.
His motivation was born from an interest in social work in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic. Meléndez became sensitive to older adults isolated by illness and confinement, “and by the anguish of not having activity. It was then that I asked myself: How do I help?”, the answer was voluntary accompaniment.
“They contact me and I take them to the doctor, but it’s not just taking them, it’s the company that requires caring for an older adult: getting them out of the car, holding them, finding the appointment, the medications, so that they are not alone,” said Meléndez.
This assistance, says the actress, brings stories of emotional encounters that attack the desolation of the elderly. “On another occasion I had a retired colonel and his children hired me. I went for about an hour and the man told me the whole story of his life. I told him: ‘Well, I have to go now,’” and he asked me to tell his daughters to pay me all the money necessary for me to stay. “I stayed with the man for four hours. He just wanted to talk and I listened,” says Meléndez, distressed.
Liliana emphasizes her sensitive and human quality in the face of the dehumanizing image of some caregivers, explaining that “there are people who call them caregivers, who don’t go out, who don’t have fun, who have no other option but to care.” Given this, he says that the day he took a woman and her 40-year-old daughter to the theater for the first time, the trip caused the daughter, who lived to take care of her mother, remarkable joy. “At the end of the outing, she told me: ‘Thank you, for this day that you gave me.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
Meléndez relies on strategic allies such as Tu Mano Amiga, but admits that, to expand, he needs support in technological and outreach advances. For now it moves in the word of mouth of his acting group.
The Venezuelan soap opera actress alternates her artistic career with this personal project called “Special Services,” which was born from her social sensitivity. In the context of the Venezuelan diaspora, loneliness is palpable and some people, like Liliana Meléndez, turn around: “You can walk down any street in Chacao and you can see the gentlemen there alone, looking into infinity. Look how nice it is for me to go, I stayed for an hour, I played cards, I painted one girl’s nails, the other cut the ends of her hair… play, give them a little love. That is my intention.”
*Read also: ARI Móvil: Mutombo does not plan to rest until La Dolorita has another image
Post Views: 12
