Desperate Family Needs Our Help
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Rosangela, Geomar and Geomar Junior (their son, aged 2) are living on the streets in a dusty town in Colombia after fleeing Venezuela. Like millions of Venezuelans they are fleeing the total collapse of their home country. They are homeless, impoverished and desperate for work or opportunities. Their plight is even worse since Rosangela is confined to a wheelchair since and accident when she was a teenager: the family cannot easily travel, and is stuck in town close to the border where they have been living on the streets of a small city called Riohacha and suffering terrible hardships for many months.
'Right now we have choice of dying here or going back to Venezuela to die', Rosangela told me last week. They left their home country after hundreds of children and babies were dying of preventable illnesses. 'We didn't want to see our son Geomar in the same situation so we came to Colombia,' she said. But things are hardly better with no work and no money to get themselves into a better life.
Like many refugees fleeing Venezuela they spent all their money and traded their possessions to get food before desperately fleeing. Crossing to Colombia, armed groups took the last of their money, now they have nothing .
Back home Geomar Sr was a software engineer, a 2nd degree Mixed Martial Arts, and and black belt in TaeKwonDo and Karate-Do. But he has been unable to work or train in the last years and has been very sick in Riohacha and was recently hospitalised.
Like most refugees in Colombia they are in the country legally but with no support from their host country or the international community, which has yet to properly recognise the huge crisis facing Venezuelans who have fled poverty and persecution.
I first met the family pushing the wheelchair and begging for coins in Riohacha in and went back to visit them in October, and have given them some help, but they need more.
With Rosangela confined to a wheelchair, Geomar has to assist her and also young Geomar their two-year-old son. £500 will amount to enough money to allow them to rent a small room for three months, basic, but at least they are off the street, with extra cash for food and some medicines. With this financial boost they can buy stuff in the market to resell: the seeds of a small business that can take them out of poverty. They can also get some medical assistance for Geomar Junior, who has asthma worsened by living out on the streets. I live and work in Bogota but I supported them to get a cellphone and I am in touch with them and can ensure all donated funds are safely delivered to them directly.
Who am I? My name is Steve Hide, I am from the UK but have lived in Colombia for many years with my family in Bogotá. I met Geomar, Rosangela and Geomar Junior when I was visiting Riohacha in September. I was so sad to hear their story, so I visited them again in October, and have been in touch with them by phone ever since (I bought them a phone on my last visit). From their messages I know they are desperate, and recently sick from living on the streets. I promised to help them as much as I can, and will continue to support them. The more funds I can raise, the more we can change their desperate situation. Because we cannot send money to Colombia or Venezuela I have opted to raise money in the UK, which I will then transfer here and send to them in a secure form (moneygram or prepaid bank card). Please help me to help them.
Why are Venezuelans fleeing to Colombia? In recent years more than 2.5 million Venezuelans have left their home country. What started as an economic crisis - mega inflation - has now become a humanitarian catastrophe plunging millions of people into hardship. In parts of the country there are acute shortages of food, water and medicines. Some of this stems from sanctions against the Venezuelan government, but also from mismanagement by the ruling regime, corruption and theft of state resources. Poverty and desperation has bought violence, some of it political, and some cities there have the highest homicide rates in the world. Collapse of the hospital system has lead to needless deaths, particularly babies and young children. But is is hunger and 'hearing children cry themselves to sleep at night for want of food' that has driven many to take refuge in Colombia. So far, Colombia has done its best to help the visitors, but Colombia also has much poverty and unemployment, especially in the border areas, so Colombians are suffering too. One aspect of the current crisis is that many of the people fleeing Venezuela until recently had stable lives, jobs, homes. They had to sell everything to buy food and were left with nothing, their life savings wiped out. Their lives were turned upside down.
How can helping one family change anything? True, there is suffering everywhere with this reported crisis. In the last few weeks I have talked to hundreds of Venezuelan refugees and all are needing some help. But Rosangela, Geomar and Geomar Jr are particularly disadvantaged by Rosangela needing a wheelchair. So let's help them first.
Here are some links to more information on the Venezuelans in Colombia:
- my personal blogsite Travels with Mitzi
- the local English-language paper The Bogotá Post where we have covered the crisis
- these Al Jazeera explainers
'Right now we have choice of dying here or going back to Venezuela to die', Rosangela told me last week. They left their home country after hundreds of children and babies were dying of preventable illnesses. 'We didn't want to see our son Geomar in the same situation so we came to Colombia,' she said. But things are hardly better with no work and no money to get themselves into a better life.
Like many refugees fleeing Venezuela they spent all their money and traded their possessions to get food before desperately fleeing. Crossing to Colombia, armed groups took the last of their money, now they have nothing .
Back home Geomar Sr was a software engineer, a 2nd degree Mixed Martial Arts, and and black belt in TaeKwonDo and Karate-Do. But he has been unable to work or train in the last years and has been very sick in Riohacha and was recently hospitalised.
Like most refugees in Colombia they are in the country legally but with no support from their host country or the international community, which has yet to properly recognise the huge crisis facing Venezuelans who have fled poverty and persecution.
I first met the family pushing the wheelchair and begging for coins in Riohacha in and went back to visit them in October, and have given them some help, but they need more.
With Rosangela confined to a wheelchair, Geomar has to assist her and also young Geomar their two-year-old son. £500 will amount to enough money to allow them to rent a small room for three months, basic, but at least they are off the street, with extra cash for food and some medicines. With this financial boost they can buy stuff in the market to resell: the seeds of a small business that can take them out of poverty. They can also get some medical assistance for Geomar Junior, who has asthma worsened by living out on the streets. I live and work in Bogota but I supported them to get a cellphone and I am in touch with them and can ensure all donated funds are safely delivered to them directly.
Who am I? My name is Steve Hide, I am from the UK but have lived in Colombia for many years with my family in Bogotá. I met Geomar, Rosangela and Geomar Junior when I was visiting Riohacha in September. I was so sad to hear their story, so I visited them again in October, and have been in touch with them by phone ever since (I bought them a phone on my last visit). From their messages I know they are desperate, and recently sick from living on the streets. I promised to help them as much as I can, and will continue to support them. The more funds I can raise, the more we can change their desperate situation. Because we cannot send money to Colombia or Venezuela I have opted to raise money in the UK, which I will then transfer here and send to them in a secure form (moneygram or prepaid bank card). Please help me to help them.
Why are Venezuelans fleeing to Colombia? In recent years more than 2.5 million Venezuelans have left their home country. What started as an economic crisis - mega inflation - has now become a humanitarian catastrophe plunging millions of people into hardship. In parts of the country there are acute shortages of food, water and medicines. Some of this stems from sanctions against the Venezuelan government, but also from mismanagement by the ruling regime, corruption and theft of state resources. Poverty and desperation has bought violence, some of it political, and some cities there have the highest homicide rates in the world. Collapse of the hospital system has lead to needless deaths, particularly babies and young children. But is is hunger and 'hearing children cry themselves to sleep at night for want of food' that has driven many to take refuge in Colombia. So far, Colombia has done its best to help the visitors, but Colombia also has much poverty and unemployment, especially in the border areas, so Colombians are suffering too. One aspect of the current crisis is that many of the people fleeing Venezuela until recently had stable lives, jobs, homes. They had to sell everything to buy food and were left with nothing, their life savings wiped out. Their lives were turned upside down.
How can helping one family change anything? True, there is suffering everywhere with this reported crisis. In the last few weeks I have talked to hundreds of Venezuelan refugees and all are needing some help. But Rosangela, Geomar and Geomar Jr are particularly disadvantaged by Rosangela needing a wheelchair. So let's help them first.
Here are some links to more information on the Venezuelans in Colombia:
- my personal blogsite Travels with Mitzi
- the local English-language paper The Bogotá Post where we have covered the crisis
- these Al Jazeera explainers
Organizer
Steve Hide
Organizer