When the rain comes, so does the fear. For hundreds of children living near the city of Petropolis, in Southeastern Brazil, such a normal, natural phenomenon recalls a traumatic experience.
Members of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) were in Brazil this month and learned about some of the activities of the project Welcomed through work – implemented by AVSI Brasil, with support from AVSI Foundation, and fully financed by PRM.
Team members from Crecemos DIJO, a community education and nutrition center in Oaxaca, Mexico, share special moments of encounter with supporters in Boston.
Since 2016, more than 6 million people have fled Venezuela. About 5 million of them have found refuge in other countries of Latin America. The country’s oppressive political climate and worsening economic conditions has made the Venezuelan crisis one of the largest migration events in modern history.
Amid the crisis, AVSI has stepped up its work with refugees and migrants in the region, leveraging the little money available to create pathways for long-term integration and development for Venezuelans in host countries. Through the project Integrados, funded by the US Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, AVSI provides legal protection, housing, and livelihoods assistance for Venezuelan refugees and migrants in three regions of Ecuador: Pichincha, Manabi, and El Oro.
On April 18, 2022, a group of individual private donors, as well as their family members and a few AVSI-USA staff, set out on a “Come & See” trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, to visit the Crecemos DIJO Center. The trip was a long time coming. It was originally scheduled for October 2020. Now, 18 months later, it was finally happening. Yet, after two years in a world substantially changed by the pandemic, some of us couldn’t help but wonder if we should be taking this trip at all.
