Awards help scholars threatened by crisis

www.caller.com By Janell Ross Caller-Times February 25, 2003

Enyely C. Pachas receives reading help Monday from Carolina Guerrero. Pachas and two other Venezuelans received scholarships from the Pan American Round Tables of Texas.

When Enyely Pachas, a second-year hotel-motel management major at Del Mar College, sits down to work at one of the school's computer stations she looks a lot like the 15 other students in the room.

But until a Monday afternoon scholarship ceremony, Pachas was one of a small group of Del Mar College students caught in the middle of a political and economic crisis in Venezuela, her home country.

"I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am for this help," Pachas said. "If I didn't have some kind of support soon, I could not be here."

A general strike in Venezuela, which officially began Dec. 2 and ended Feb. 4, aimed at forcing the country's president to call for new elections, thrust the country into economic turmoil. Despite the end of the strike, many bank accounts are frozen to prevent bank runs and many Venezuelans have lost their jobs. And there is no gasoline to get people to the few remaining jobs.

Pachas, along with fellow Venezuelans Ingrid Merrick and Natasha De Campos, were granted emergency scholarships, totaling $4,800, from the local membership of the Pan American Round Tables of Texas. The scholarships will cover the cost of each woman's tuition this semester.

Pan American Round Tables is a non-profit organization founded in 1944 by women wanting to encourage people living in every part of the American continent to better understand one another.

"With this help, I fell like I can breathe again," De Campos said Monday at a press conference at Del Mar. "Like I can think again."

The three women, in their 20s, had been able to finance their studies at Del Mar with campus work-study jobs, savings and family assistance until late last year.

"The people in my country, they want to work," said Pachas. "But, we are also a democratic people who want to live under a democratic government. So people are willing to make incredible sacrifices."

For Pachas' family, the strike has meant that her mother's Venezuelan school uniform and decoration company has no new orders to fill, no workers and no income.

For Merrick, Venezuela's woes have meant that her mother, who teaches Spanish literature, and father, who is a contractor, have been utterly unable to send her any money since December. In fact, when Merrick tried to return to Venezuela to look for work, her older sister called and asked her not to come home.

The family could not scrape together enough money to buy enough gas to get the family's car from their Caracas home to the airport in the same city.

De Campos' situation is similar. Her mother's Caracas boutique has sold almost no merchandise for months and has been closed since early December.

Del Mar Development Office staff approached the Pan American Round Tables of Texas with the three women's stories.

While the group provides scholarships to Del Mar students each semester, the scholarships granted to the three Venezuelan women are the first round of emergency aid group members at Monday's ceremony can recall granting.

Contact Janell Ross at 886-3758 or rossj@caller.com