Nov 27 to Dec 3, Monday to Sunday
On November 29, the Fraternidade – International Humanitarian Federation, signed a technical and operational cooperation agreement with the City Hall of Pacaraima. The objective is to foster the development of actions of humanitarian help to the immigrants who are in the city.
The House of Passing, place destined to the reception of the immigrants in the city of Pacaraima, with almost one month of activity, already has about 230 Indigenous Venezuelans of the Warao ethnic group. Almost half of those are children.
“The shelter is located in a natural environment that favors and facilitates the co-existence and adaptation of the immigrants here in Brazil. The meals are fixed by each family, and this also offers a more similar condition to the one they used to have in Venezuela”, said Imer, a missionary of the Fraternidade.
Feeding and Health
Feeding in the House of Passing is provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) through the World Food Program of the United Nations (WFP/UN).
Every Friday, the City Hall of Pacaraima has been holding group services of health attendance, with doctors and nurses.
With the improvement in nutrition, conditions of the shelter and with the attendance, the situation of the immigrants has improved.
“Since the opening of the shelter, the cases of skin diseases has diminished almost completely. When the immigrants lived in the streets, the skin problems were very recurrent, including wounds that did not heal. The cases of medial urgency that need referral to hospital have diminished, too”, informed Imer.
New ethnic groups
Missionary indicating the route of immigration
The missionaries of the Fraternidade began to attend Venezuelan Indigenous immigrants of other ethnic groups, such as Panare and Caicara. These immigrants come from the Venezuelan State of Bolívar, a region near the Amazonian region.
“They cross the whole savana of Venezuela. Tribes more or less isolated, the Panare speak Spanish in a precarious way”, detailed Imer.
According to the Missionaries of the Fraternidade, about 35 Indigenous people of the Panare Ethnic group are currently living in the city of Pacaraima. One part in an abandoned condominium and another part in a street of the city. The missionaries have been helping with donations of clothes and food.
With the non-Indigenous Venezuelan immigrants, the missionaries have been active with home visits and in the places where the immigrants are, such as the stage of Pacaraima, where about 35 people of 10 different families live.
Besides distributing clothes and food, the missionaries have been supporting the emission of documents. During one week, the group collaborated with the Federal Police and with the Institute of Migrations and Human Rights (IMDH) in the registry of about 700 immigrants.
