My name is Lorenzo Rodríguez, I am 15 years old and I am from Caracas, Venezuela. I am a sophomore at Cheshire Academy, and it is my first year attending this school. I moved to the United States of America in August of 2016 along with the rest of my family.

I am from Caracas, the murder-capital of the world, with 120 per 100,000 people. Caracas is home to around 8 million people, with the majority living in poverty, including some of the world's most corrupt politicians and, at 475%, the second-worst inflation rate in the world. I lived in a country which has the chance to be one of the greatest, yet it is one of the worst because of selfish and greedy people. This is something that has had a large effect on me, as it shows what happens when you do not control your greed. Our corrupt government has a large effect on kids growing up, for example, kids in America commonly want to be president of the United States, however no-one wants to become a corrupt politician when they grow up. 

  I was fortunate enough to have been able to escape from such a place, yet I feel for those who still remain. I want to try and spread some awareness for the horrors that occur everyday in Venezuela, mainly because no-one seems to truly know what is going on.