CHILDREN MISSING SCHOOL DUE TO FOOD CRISIS

Half of children in oil-rich Venezuela are missing meals as a result of food shortages caused by the country’s financial crisis, resulting in many being unable to attend school.

The findings by More Consulting, a research firm, found that 50 per cent of parents were only feeding their children one or two meals a day.

Venezuela has some of the world’s largest oil reserves but has been left reeling by the collapse in crude prices and decades of economic mismanagement.

With inflation forecast to hit 480 per cent this year, ordinary citizens face spending hours in supermarket queues to purchase subsidized goods, leaving those who cannot afford the prices to sift rubbish dumps for food.