Venezuelans create income from home businesses

Santa Rosalía Street in a poor neighborhood in heart of Caracas used to teem with food carts that sold street fare all night long. glow of lights as crowds of hungry people handed over ir cash and debit cards for a quick meal has fallen dark and silent.

When COVID mandated quarantine shut down street-life in Venezuela's capital city, Dioselis Bello closed down her street food cart and opened up her home for business.

She sells w sells arepas, Venezuela's comfort food, from her kitchen to customers who wait for home cooked meal to take with m.

Like many struggling to get by, she can't survive without working.

Business isn't like it was working her portable flatiron on bustling street, but Bello says she's happy to earn a living.

"I can't complain," 49-year-old Bello said. "This way, at least I'm at home and I'm able to work."

To compensate for a lack of customers on streets because of lockdown, Bello has a delivery service to deliver her beloved arepas to customers' homes.

Some Venezuelans have improvised a new source of income despite harsh quarantine restrictions aimed at slowing coronavirus spread.

y turned ir homes and or unlikely s into makeshift take-out restaurants or shops.

Next door, Isabel Quevedo, 42, started selling candy, bread, cigarettes and soft drinks from windowsill in her small house where a couple of beds occupy more than half of .

She started her business after suddenly being laid off from a clothing store.

Quevedo is able to feed herself and her grandson and on a good day, earns more than monthly minimum w she was paid when she worked at store.

She doubts she'll ever go back to clothing store.

first cases of coronavirus in Venezuela five months ago was followed by strict quarantine measures, closing businesses and leaving many without work.

It hit at a time when Venezuela's crushing ecomic crisis already left most scraping by on a monthly minimum w equal to roughly 2.60 US dollars.