A social media post by a university professor in Venezuela has gone viral after highlighting the extreme levels of poverty faced by teachers, lecturers and other professionals in the midst of the country¡¯s economic crisis.

Jos¨¦ Ibarra, a professor of social care at the Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, shared a photograph of a broken pair of shoes that he said he could not afford to repair.

¡°I¡¯m not embarrassed to say it: it is with these shoes that I go to the Central University of Venezuela every day to teach,¡± he wrote in a Twitter post. ¡°My salary as a university professor is not enough to change the sole of my shoes.¡±

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No me da pena decirlo: con estos zapatos me traslado a la a dar clase. Mi sueldo como profesor universitario no me alcanza para pagar el cambio de suela pues sale en 20 millones

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¡ª Jos¨¦ Ibarra (@Ibarraorellanes)

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Professor Ibarra said that a cobbler had told him that he would need 20 million bol¨ªvares?(?88) to pay for new soles ¨C almost four times his monthly salary. The post has had more than 10,000 retweets on Twitter and more than?1,000 responses from well-wishers, many of whom offered financial support as well as donations of shoes and clothes.

The response led Professor Ibarra to set up ¡°Shoes of Dignity¡±, a charity campaign to help other colleagues living below the breadline.

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¡°The tweet was an explosion of frustration. As hardly anyone was following me, I thought no one would see it,¡± he told AFP. ¡°But already I¡¯ve received 12 pairs of shoes ¨C of which I¡¯ve given away nine?¨C clothes and money. I created the movement because I kept receiving donations.¡±

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund estimated that the annual inflation rate in Venezuela will reach 1 million per cent by the end of 2018. Several university leaders in the country have made the decision to cut class timetables down to three days a week in order to save money ¨C and often because university staff and students say that they cannot afford to make the journey in.

University lecturers at a number of institutions are being encouraged to find secondary sources of income amid fears that institutions can no longer afford to pay them a living wage.

rachael.pells@timeshighereducation.com