Ep. 11 | Yakera, Peer-to-Peer Aid for Venezuelans (with the Yakera Team)

In this episode, we speak with the team at Yakera, a newly launched platform designed to re-imagine peer-to-peer aid in Venezuela. Launched by a group of students at Kenyon College, Yakera is a platform with the potential to help Venezuelans transition from survival to resilience.

Skyrocketing hyperinflation and chronic food shortages amidst an ongoing global pandemic have pushed Venezuelans to a point of desperation, with a growing number relying on remittances sent from families living abroad. Remittances are in fact the single greatest resource of income stimulating the Venezuelan economy after oil and gas exports (and other illicit sources of income financing the dictatorship such as drug trafficking and gold mining, but more on that in other episodes). Humanitarian aid is often hoarded by the Maduro regime at the expense of Venezuelans facing the fourth-worst food crisis in the world according to the UN, and the regime has made it next to impossible to legally send money to Venezuelans who have no access to bank accounts.

Yakera aims to provide Venezuelans an alternative for aid and dollar remittances from abroad, and for donors to directly aid Venezuelans in desperate need. Through the use of cryptocurrency, transfers can take place freely without the regime intervening to take a percentage or enact foreign currency controls. Yakera recently announced that they have partnered with AirTM, the financial startup that is currently working with interim President Juan Guaidó to transfer bonuses to frontline healthcare workers in Venezuela.

In addition to the financial partnership with AirTM, we discuss how Yakera works for both donors and recipients to establish a pattern of sustained engagement, all while skirting the malicious incursion of the Maduro dictatorship.

Raúl Romero is a Venezuelan student at Kenyon College, and the founder of Yakera. He’s an award-winning alumnus of Middlebury College’s MiddCare Program for mentorship based program, where he came up with the idea for the Yakera initiative. Raúl is also an intern for the Human Rights and Democracy program at the McCain Institute.

Aaron Lambert, CFO at Yakera, is a student at Kenyon College majoring in International Studies with a concentration in Global Politics & Society in Latin America, and minoring in Spanish. Aaron is also a defender on Kenyon College’s Men’s Lacrosse Team.

Daniel Santos Ramirez, Yakera’s Head of Local Implementation and Partnerships, is a student at Trinity College (Hartford, CT), where he’s majoring in Economics and Political Science, with a concentration in comparative politics. Daniel is also a Strategic Planning & Policy Intern at the Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation.

For more information on Yakera, their social media, upcoming events, and ways to support and donate to their fundraising campaign, please visit their Linktree page to learn more: https://linktr.ee/yakera