Between January 15 and 21, the members of the Colombia Mission had a meeting for discussing the planning of activities and projects that will be developed during 2020.
Friar Luciano, a monk of the Grace Mercy Order (GMO) and general manager of the Fraternidade-International Humanitarian Missions (FIHM), was in Colombia to closely follow the work of the missionaries that are active in Bogota, capital of the country, also envisioning activities in Cúcuta, a city on the border with Venezuela and the main point of entry for the immigrants to the country.
In meetings with Bethany Christian Services, the Embassy of Canada, the Minute of God Corporation, the Center for Migrations, and the UNHCR of Cúcuta, proposals were developed for a training course on key migration issues for Colombian public agents, and livelihood projects, especially for women in extremely vulnerable situations, and included the prospect of doing an Education Seminar in Emergency Situations and Humanitarian Responses.
The Colombia Mission has specialized in and concentrated most of its activities on taking care of children and adolescents, with art and education activities, based on an emergency teaching method, activities that take place in spaces prepared to better receive them, above all with the intention of normalizing the rhythm and eventually creating places where traumas, which may have occurred on the immigration route from Venezuela to Colombia, can be worked on and healed.
So 2020 began with perspectives for deepening and expanding the activities that are already occurring, creating the possibility for continuing with actions in the emergency humanitarian response, but also with key initiatives for the development and dignified integration of the immigrant population with Colombian society.
Last month, with Bethany Christian Services, a North American organization that is active in support of the immigrants, a space was created where several Venezuelan women meet so that they can be empowered through a women’s circle, where they talk, meet one another, tell about their experiences that have many similar aspects which generate sympathy in the group; and while these women are with a team of psychologists, the Fraternidade Missões (FIHM) develop activities with the children of these women.
In the meetings held in the month of January, a seminar on Education in Emergency Situations and Humanitarian Responses began to be organized, not only because of the work done with children and adolescents, but because the organizations that work in partnership with the Interagency Group for Mixed Migration Flows (IGMMF), together realized the deep need for generating projects and actions that aim to integrate the large Venezuelan population that is in Colombian territory.
The intention of this seminar, proposed for being carried out already in the first semester of the year, and destined for the public servants that work directly with the impacts of the immigration and humanitarian agents of the various NGOs active in Colombian territory, would be to trigger a discussion on the consequences of a traumatic situation, to help the future of these people in their surroundings, both on an individual and on a social level.
Find out more about the activities developed in the Colombia Mission by clicking here.