Saltar al contenido principal

Latin American Local Faith Community Responses to Venezuelan Migration, September 2020

Países
Colombia
+ 8
Fuentes
CWS
Fecha de publicación
Origen
Ver original

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As of June 2020, Venezuela ranks as the second-largest displacement crisis in the world, with an estimated 5.1 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide. The scale of displacement has been “unprecedented […] in magnitude and speed” in Latin America, and will only be further complicated by the global pandemic.

While much attention has been paid to UN and international NGO responses to Venezuelan displacement, considerably less is known about how local actors, and faith communities in particular, have reacted. Catholic and Protestant local faith communities have had a role in supporting Venezuelan migrants in certain countries—indeed, it is often local groups that provide the first assistance to displaced persons in need.

This research has mapped and analyzed Protestant local faith community responses to Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean. It sought to identify the services provided, and to offer analysis of how local faith communities are responding, with the goal of giving visibility to important contributions already being made by local faith communities, and identifying additional opportunities that local faith communities may consider strategic or beneficial to ensuring high quality services and support to Venezuelan migrants across the region. Although the work being done by Catholic Church groups is of more visible or well-known, considerably less research has been carried out on the work done among other local Christian communities.

Indeed, LFCs are delivering services and accompanying Venezuelans along migration routes, at border crossings and at migrants’ final destinations. LFCs have been providing temporary shelter and housing assistance, food, clothing, transportation assistance, legal education and access to health services. They have also provided psychosocial assistance, worship space, and pastoral support. These local, neighborhood level, sometimes spontaneous and volunteer-driven faith-based initiatives, are complementary to the work done by specialized national and international NGOs and UN agencies.

Findings suggested an opportunity to build connections across the infamous relief development gap. While international NGOs and the UN continue to discuss the best ways to bridge immediate, life-saving humanitarian responses with longer-term initiatives that benefit both hosts and displaced persons, LFCs appear to be carrying out many humanitarian and development projects simultaneously.

The findings of this report tell a story of many LFCs that are highly engaged, and in some cases, acting very professionally. There are challenges, as well, including how sustainable such activities will be, and what types of protections should be in place among LFCs that are not connected to larger networks, donors, or accountability systems that require standard reporting and transparency. Broadly speaking, though, the LFCs interviewed for this report represent dedicated and innovative groups of people motivated by faith to do their best to respond to the protection and assistance needs of Venezuelans.

In the coming months and years, the ongoing pandemic, funding shortfalls, and an unpredictable political situation in Venezuela may limit how international actors can receive and respond to displaced Venezuelans. Many LFCs, as actors rooted in local communities, are positioned to reach both Venezuelan migrants and host community members in need.