Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoCOLOMBIA / VENEZUELAN REFUGEE MOTHER
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: COLOMBIA / VENEZUELAN REFUGEE MOTHER
TRT: 2:35
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTION: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 29-31 JULY 2019 AND 1-2 AUGUST 2019, CUCUTA, PAMPLONA, PARAMO DE BERLIN – MEDELLIN
1. Wide shot, Venezuelans crossing Simon Bolivar Bridge to Colombia
2. Med shot, Venezuelans on the bridge, man in wheel chair
3. Wide shot, Venezuelans arriving in Colombia, Simon Bolivar Bridge, Cucuta
4. Med shot, people dragging luggage on the bridge
5.Med shot, Isbel walking with children, back shot
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Isbel Bolivar, Venezuelan refugee:
“And that I’d see my children stop playing, stop drawing, and start saying “Mummy, we ran out of flour, we ran out of rice. Mummy, here is the aid package…”
7. Med shot, Isbel Bolivar feeding her daughter at the shelter
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Isbel Bolivar, Venezuelan refugee:
“My children went an entire day, 24 hours, without eating.”
9. Various shot, Isbel with her children
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Isbel Bolivar, Venezuelan refugee:
“My son Jeremías was hospitalized with malnutrition. He weighed 7 kilos at age 3. He was going to die.”
11. Wide shot, young Venezuelan men hitchhiking to go to the Paramo de Berlin
12. Wide shot, Venezuelan family walking towards Pamplona
13. Various shots, mountains on the way to the Paramo de Berlin
14. Med shot, Venezuelans walking
15. Med shot, Venezuelan mother covering her child with a hat
16. Close up, map of the road used by the caminantes
17. Wide shot, Venezuelan caminante at the paramo de Berlin
18. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Isbel Bolivar, Venezuelan refugee:
“We were very scared because we were not used to it.”
19. Close up, Venezuelan young man wearing socks on his hands to keep them warm
20.Wide shot, caminantes
21. Close up, their feet
22. Med shot, a child sleeping outside
23. Wide shot, Venezuelans gathering in front of a private shelter
24. Wide shot, Venezuelan caminantes waiting for assistance at a Red Cross center
25. Med shot, Red Cross Aid worker from the back, talking to Venezuelan caminantes
26. Med shot, Red Cross aid worker walking out of a tent where Venezuelans get assistance
27. Wide shot, main community room at the municipality shelter, Medellin
28. Wide shot, street with traffic in Medellin
29. Wide shot, Panoramic view of Medellin
30. Med shot, UNHCR staff interacting with Venezuelans in municipal shelter, Medellin
31. Med shot, Isbel and her children in her room at the shelter, Medellin
32. Med shot, Isbel teaching how to read to her daughter, Medellin
33.Close up, Isbel hand on the notebook
34. Med shot, Isbel and her children kissing
Thirty-year old Isbel felt she had little choice but leave Venezuela for the sake of her four children. A single mother, she embarked with them on a perilous journey by foot to make it to Colombia. She became one of thousands of “caminantes”, or walkers, fleeing Venezuela.
Thousands of Venezuelans continue to flee widespread violence, hunger and scarcity in their country. Neighboring Colombia now hosts 1.4 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Isbel Bolivar, Venezuelan refugee:
“And that I’d see my children stop playing, stop drawing, and start saying “Mummy, we ran out of flour, we ran out of rice. Mummy, here is the aid package…”
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Isbel Bolivar, Venezuelan refugee:
“My children went an entire day, 24 hours, without eating.”
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Isbel Bolivar, Venezuelan refugee:
“My son Jeremías was hospitalized with malnutrition. He weighed 7 kilos at age 3. He was going to die.”
Many cannot afford to travel by bus or car, and so they walk from the border to Colombian cities such as Bucaramanga, Medellin, Cartagena, Cali and Bogota. Some even walk as far as Ecuador, Peru, or to Chile, thousands of kilometers away.
Like many Venezuelans, Isbel could not afford transportation. She walked for days with her four young children climbing winding mountain roads.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Isbel Bolivar, Venezuelan refugee:
“We were very scared because we were not used to it.”
The “caminantes” – or walkers, as they are known in Spanish – often sleep out in the open and sometimes eat only once a day. They climb from near-sea level to freezing mountain passes that are more than 3,000 meters in altitude. They push through the pain and exhaustion, even though they have no clear idea of how they will manage to restart their lives at their destinations.
Isbel and her four children are among the hundreds “caminantes” estimated to strike out on the perilous journey every day. Their journey took them from Venezuela’s Carabobo state, over the Paramo de Berlin, on to Bogota, and finally to Medellin, where they are staying in a municipal shelter supported by UNHCR.
