Refugee Assistance

Colombian church gathers children under its wings

MCC Staff
May 2, 2012

CONDOTO, Colombia – A Mennonite church in the small mining town of Condoto in western Colombia is reaching out to children affected by ongoing violence in the region.

Peniel Mennonite Brethren Church has been running a program for the past five years in support of children in need, called Los Niños por la Paz (Children for Peace). Condoto, like many towns in the department (district) of Chocó, is home to families displaced by violence related to illicit drug production or mining.

“Many of the children in these families have lost their parents and are in the care of older siblings or grandparents,” explained Rebekah Sears, a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker in Colombia, from Fredericton, New Brunswick. MCC started supporting the children’s project this year, adding to other efforts MCC has supported for many years in southern Chocó.

“The church began the program out of concern that these vulnerable children could be drawn into gangs and other criminal activity.”

Los Niños por la Paz offers lunch and activities four days a week. The program ranges from games and crafts to teaching about concepts like peace, love and justice from a biblical perspective. Except for the director, who is also the regional vice president for youth within the Mennonite Brethren Church, the program consists entirely of volunteers.

Within armed conflicts, communities such as Condoto are often caught in the middle of the violence and instability and feel powerless to stop it, said Sears.

“Standing up to violence and injustice with a prophetic voice for change in such circumstances requires prayer, courage of heart and perseverance. This is the current reality of the Mennonite Brethren Church in the Chocó.”

In the last six months, the levels of violent intimidation of communities and killings in this predominantly Afro-Colombian region have greatly increased. Armed groups such as the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), remobilized paramilitaries and state forces are battling each other for control of land and resources.

Caught in the middle in southern Chocó are 17 Mennonite Brethren churches with their 1,500 members.

“The situation is very complicated,” said Pastor Jose Rutilio Rivas Dominguez, regional president of the Mennonite Brethren churches in Chocó. “But the increases in violence come down to a few main factors: illicit crops and mining.”

As the national government increases its coca crop (used for cocaine) intervention in the region and mining activity increases, the illegal armed groups react to protect their control of resources by threatening the civilian population.

“The church is called to be an instrument of change for peace and a prophetic voice for justice within communities,” said Pastor Rutilio. And that is what the Mennonite Brethren leaders and communities are seeking to do.

Projects led by the local Mennonite Brethren churches, with support from Mennonite Central Committee, provide communities in coca production areas with alternative crops such as rice and cocao (used to make chocolate). With these crops, church and community members can resist the armed groups’ pressure to raise coca, though not without risk, because they have another way to make money and raise affordable food.

Local churches become healing communities for people who have suffered from armed conflict. For example, by offering hope to children and families who have gone through the pain of displacement and violence, Los Niños por la Paz inspires alternative ways of reacting to violence and helps bring healing in a situation that at times can seem hopeless, said Sears.

According to Pastor Rutilio, one of the biggest challenges for isolated congregations in these violence-affected communities is feeling alone. Earlier this year, the three Anabaptist denominations in Colombia committed to support their brothers and sisters in Christ in Chocó.

The hope, too, is that Anabaptist churches around the world will walk alongside the people of Chocó, supporting them through prayer, concern, action and advocacy.

Mennonite Central Committee: Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ

MCC Canada news service with reports from Rebekah Sears.

Violence in Colombia displacing more people into Ecuador

 12 April 2012

© UNHCR/B.Baloch  Senor Padilla with his wife and children at a UNHCR sponsored shelter home in San Lorenzo in north-western Ecuador.

SAN LORENZO, Ecuador, April 12 (UNHCR) – Senor Padilla, his wife and two of their children escaped to the small Ecuadorean port of San Lorenzo in late February, joining the growing number of people fleeing fresh violence in nearby Colombia.

"We came because two paramilitary factions and one guerrilla group were wreaking havoc in the area where we lived. They are killing a lot of the local people," Padilla told UNHCR. Growing numbers of people have been arriving in northern Ecuador's Esmeraldas province this year and asking for asylum. Like Padilla, they cite increased violence across the border.

Significant numbers of people have been crossing into the province to seek shelter for years, with government figures putting the number at 1,200 to 1,500 people a month, said Oscar Sánchez Piñeiro, head of UNHCR's field office in Esmeraldas.

But he added that the number had risen due to "the deteriorating conditions" in and around Tumaco, the main Pacific port in south-west Colombia's Nariño department. In one week earlier this year, UNHCR estimates that there were 600 arrivals.

Sánchez Piñeiro said that a further 1,000 people are believed to have arrived in Esmeraldas province during the same time, but had not been able to file asylum claims because it was difficult getting from border areas to the provincial capital, Esmeraldas, where the government registers new arrivals.

"The new arrivals say the situation in Colombia remains volatile," the UNHCR official said. "Among the arriving population there are many women and children who had to flee because of threats, assassinations of relatives or the occupation of their land by irregular armed groups. Many live in precarious conditions, especially due to their proximity to the conflict zone and increasing violence in the border."

UNHCR visitors met Padilla and his family at a shelter in San Lorenzo, where they were receiving assistance until they could find somewhere more permanent to live and look for a livelihood. They decided to leave Tumaco after one of the armed groups killed three people in their neighbourhood, Padilla said, adding: "It was rumoured that three more people were missing."

But Padilla did not have enough money for transport to the border and he and his wife made the tough decision to leave their two oldest children – a 10-year-old girl and a boy aged 13 – with relatives in the hope that they could later reunite in Ecuador. His wife worries about the two children. "It hurt me a lot when I had to leave as I had never been far away from them, never."

Many of the families arriving in this area stay with local communities on San Lorenzo's stretch of coast, while others – like Padilla's family – are provided with temporary accommodation. "We have several locations where we provide shelter for the new arrivals, especially for the vulnerable ones in San Lorenzo," said Sánchez Piñeiro, adding that needs surpassed UNHCR's capacity.

UNHCR offers weekly briefings for the new arrivals in San Lorenzo, which is the first point of entry for many. The sessions include orientation on how to access the asylum process and also arranged information meetings through the provincial Refugee Directorate, which is the state entity in charge of providing registration and conducting the asylum process.

One priority for UNHCR is to work with the protection networks established in the border region to help trace the separated family members and to enhance protection activities along the northern border with Colombia.

Debbie Elizondo, UNHCR's representative in Quito, noted that Ecuador is the largest refugee-hosting country in Latin America, with more than 55,000 recognized Colombian refugees. But she also expressed concern about the dangers asylum seekers face in the border areas inside Ecuador.

"Many people may think that perhaps there is no more conflict in Colombia, but the reality is that we continue to see thousands fleeing the increasingly volatile areas and fragmented fighting," she said, adding that the border area was dangerous.

"Just last year, 15 refugees or asylum-seekers were assassinated in the province of Esmeraldas. There is also an increased presence of illegal armed groups along the border and they operate in the region and foster systemic human rights violations," Elizondo added.

By Babar Baloch in San Lorenzo, Ecuador

Refugee Sponsorship Rules Have Changed

In an effort to clear a backlog of refugee applications, the Canadian government is limiting the number of new applications for private sponsorships that name specific refugees.

This change will affect the kind of refugees that congregations and community groups can sponsor.

more

MCC Manitoba's Refugee Assistance program works to promote refugee sponsorship by churches in Manitoba and works with other groups to address the needs of newcomers and refugees.

Contact the Refugee Assistance program.

Travel Blog

In September and October, 2011, Brian Dyck travelled to Colombia and Ecuador to learn more about the plight of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in Colombia.  Read about the trip at his blog.