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If isolation or terror of contagion in the time of coronavirus is not something easy to handle, imagine all this lived in a foreign country after having been forced by the circumstances of scarcity, hunger and despair to leave behind their land, their family and everything that you have fought for in life. Being in the middle of nowhere, empty-handed and not knowing where to call home to comply with a preventive isolation measure is desperate.
And that is the reality that at this moment Lala Lovera, a woman from Caracas with residence in Colombia, is not afraid to raise her voice to remember that If the migratory wave had been difficult, now it is twice as difficult for the more than 1,825,000 Venezuelans living in the country., figure revealed in the last report of Colombia Migration.
And it is that, according to Lovera, it is as if from one day to the next the long walks, the cold, living on the street, crossing trails, walking kilometers to go to a school and all those things that afflict the migrant population had been turned into trifles compared to what they are currently experiencing due to a pandemic that took us all by surprise and is changing our lives.
“Make no mistake, the return of Venezuelan migrants is not occurring entirely voluntarily, as it has been wanted to show. It is being generated as a consequence of the fear and uncertainties that have been generated with this situation, ”an idea that, she says, itches.
For this 45-year-old woman, the most important thing is to assume and confront what is happening with teamwork, so she invites each citizen to go beyond the headlines that have come out in the media talking about the return of Venezuelans to their homeland in response to the covid-19 and the so-called ‘lockdowns’ or mandatory preventive confinements, to understand that it is really about Mirages that have been formed in the midst of the crisis, hiding painful life stories of families, youth and children who are doubly victimized.
“It is a euphemism to disguise a painful, dangerous and denaturing displacement problem. The reality of migration must be integrated and this is a task for civil society as a whole, ”says Lovera in one of his working documents.
Make no mistake, the return of Venezuelan migrants is not taking place entirely voluntarily, as has been shown.
In this way, it ensures that these people have been additional victims of the pandemic and of local measures to contain itBecause they have been in a terrifying situation in which confinement has been ordered in homes that, in many cases, they lack, while surviving the lack of moral and psychological support.
According to her, the execrable action of the Venezuelan Government is added, which at any cost wants to advertise and use its migrant nationals as a token in the midst of the post-truth game.
A new hell
Now that he dedicates his time to the foundation Share for a Life in Colombia (@ComparteColombia)Lala Lovera lives between Bogotá and Cúcuta, so she has seen the faces of need first hand. Despite the confinement, his work has not stopped. He does everything to stay up to date on what is lived there, because each child in the project feels like family.
He affirms that with the current situation, a new hell has appeared, faced by those who have been left with their belongings in the border area and must face the armed groups that charge tolls to return to their country. Some encounter closed borders, others are afraid to carry out the legal crossing because they do not have the necessary documents and, after crossing, some collide with violent forces from Venezuela who receive them with threats for having left the neighboring country.
“It seems like a joke. But it is a reality of fist that few know and that only they suffer. That is why we must urgently raise our voice for Venezuelan migrants, “adds this woman, who warns that although no country was prepared to receive these citizens and children in a state of vulnerability, malnourished, without vaccines or without a health system It is important that those who have the possibility of helping in their hands do so.
The secret, he argues, could be to lead people to understand that it is not a matter of nationality, nor a competition to compare who is worse or suffers more, but rather The discussions must take place starting from the idea that all human beings have rights regardless of the flag.
We see children with empty bellies, in a state of overcrowding and without access to an education, so the lack of all of these basic needs that are not met becomes a serious problem.
If asked about the panorama of this situation, Lovera describes with concern that the majority of the Venezuelan migrant population in Colombia works informally and is irregularly, so the hardest thing in this time has been knowing that they are not they can stay home because they have neither a roof nor what to eat.
The situation does not improve for those who live in pagadiarios, because in these places Between 12 and 15 people live in the same space, which makes these sites a space where an outbreak can easily occur. With the aggravating circumstance that the education of minors becomes impossible, since they are children who are in places where the connectivity to attend virtual classes is almost impossible.
“We see children with empty bellies, in a state of overcrowding and without access to an educationTherefore, the lack of all these basic needs not supplied becomes a serious problem, “he declares.
Currently, since its foundation, they are carrying out care projects in the midst of the crisis for this population; in fact, they have just joined ‘Colombia Cuida a Colombia’, the national alliance of more than 240 civil society organizations and the private sector.
(Also read: The Venezuelan ‘teacher’ who, with signs, fights against exclusion)
“Thanks to that we have been able to give a response supporting foundations in Bogotá and, articulated in Norte de Santander with the mayor of Villa del Rosario and Cúcuta, to date we have benefited more than 7,000 people by delivering markets that last 20 days and they cover 50% of the necessary intake of the family, ”he says.
Lala Lovera, director of Comparte por una Vida Colombia.
Profession: voluntary
The verb to give is perhaps the most used by Lala Lovera. For her, putting it into practice is like entering a two-way highway where both the giver and the recipient learn something by putting themselves in the other’s shoes. This has been understood from an early age, because this woman, born in Caracas on October 9, 1974, says that from a young age he managed to learn that one should always try to serve others in something and that is why he has made social work his lifestyle.
She is the second of three sisters in a family full of women and marked by the strength of a leading grandmother and a struggling mother by nature, who was left alone with her little ones and showed them with facts what it is to be a great mom and successful executive at Same time.
As a child, when she was invited to work with a community with a disability in the Association for the Development of Complementary Education, Asodeco, she began to understand that, as an adult, she wanted to help others. Thanks to that experience, he decided to study Special Education in Caracas at the Avepane University Institute and then at the José María Vargas University.
(Also read: ‘Venezuela is experiencing the worst tragedy of humanity’: Pastrana)
It was the beginning of a long career in all kinds of jobs: as an English teacher in a preschool, coordinator in integration issues with large food chains, director of a kindergarten (which she preferred to close when she was forced to fulfill a penisum full of indoctrination, as part of the new model of Chávez government), and even manager of a beauty salon, a place in which shareholders became part of the manicurists to demonstrate that in these spaces you can also work to generate community.
On that journey, he married and built his life project with the lawyer Laureano Siegmund and his two children. However, Venezuela began to get complicated on security issues. “I did not understand why we should all, due to insecurity, get used to living with the fear of going out and being kidnapped. I always said that the day I had such an incident, it was going to be time to go, ”he recalls.
One morning, when she was going to the bakery, some motorists tried to take her away, a consequence of what she describes as the modus operandi of the insecurity that lived in her country. “My husband eventually traveled to Colombia to work, so I said to him: ‘Let’s go and if your project ends we will come back.'”, with that idea he arrived in Colombia in 2011.
Although the border area had always been to and fro from one side to the other, so many young people and children had never been seen crossing the border to survive alone.
Initially, she thought she would take up 100% of her role as mother, but an uncle connected her with Bárbara Escobar, from the House of the Mother and Child, and volunteered. “I fell in love with that place. It was a project that I saw grow during the nine years I worked there, ”he adds.
One Friday in 2017, at five in the afternoon, while at the Mother and Child House, five Venezuelan children arrived for protection, accompanied by the Police and the ICBF, who were withdrawn from Ciudad Bolívar because their rights were being violated . At that moment, she felt her eyes open to a problem in which she had to intervene.
“I found a dreadful reality, because although the border area had always been to come and go from one side to the other, so many young people and children had never been seen crossing the border to survive alone”, remember.
So it was that in January 2018, after watching a television program about a rector who received children who walked 15, 18 and 20 kilometers every day from Venezuela to study, who without thinking took a plane and went to that school to find out how I could help.
“I discover that they are not just Venezuelan children but returnees and I decide to start moving in Bogotá to see who joined me to do something. This is the beginning of this tireless battle that I have now ”, he adds.
Hand in hand with a movement that already worked from Venezuela and various groups of friends, mounted the Colombia chapter of Share for a Life to assist the 8,000 to 12,000 children who cross the border every day. The project has been changing, as they went from donating milk, shoes and basic necessities to working to activate an entire aid route for intervention in the medium and long term.
(Also read: Tension in Venezuela by Iranian plane landing in pandemic)
“We started with 40 children and we already have 500 children. We face malnutrition and malnutrition with the creation of protective spaces in educational entities, ”he says.
Each story she has heard has decided to make her part of herself, her dreams and nightmares, and therefore her way of acting. Not by obligation, but because it is clear that the only title you are interested in being granted is that of volunteer.
* Publication with the support of the Reconciliation Partnerships Program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Acdi / Voca
DIANA RAVELO MÉNDEZ
Multimedia Specials THE TIME
On twitter: @DianaRavelo
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