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STORY: COLOMBIA / VENEZUELAN REFUGEES DECEASED
TRT: 3:10
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 05 NOVEMBER 2020, RIOHACHA, COLOMBIA
05 NOVEMBER 2020, RIOHACHA, COLOMBIA
1. Med shot, family members of a Venezuelan' deceased during his burial at ‘Gente Como Uno’ graveyard
2. Various shots, Sonia preparing the graves for the deceased
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sonia Bermúdez, Coroner, Gente Como Uno cemetery:
“I began by burying the first displaced people who died here, and it was like a domino effect.”
4. Various shots, family members placing coffin in grave
5. Wide shot, Sonia and family members of Venezuelan deceased at ‘Gente Como Uno’ graveyard
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sonia Bermúdez, Coroner, Gente Como Uno cemetery:
“We collect and prepare the body and transport the body and the family."
7. Various shots, Sonia and her assistant preparing the body to be transported to the cemetery
8. Wide shot, Family members of the Venezuelan deceased placing the coffin in Sonia’s pickup
9. Close up, Sonia driving to the cemetery
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sonia Bermúdez, Coroner, Gente Como Uno cemetery:
“It gave me the opportunity to have a fuller view on what happens with cadavers. And it sparked my desire to help those people without any means to get a burial.”
11. Wide shot, Sonia and her assistant walking into the central cemetery
12. Wide shot, Central cemetery
13. Various shots of Sonia placing flowers on graves at the central cemetery
14. Med shot, Sonia looking at the graves
15. Close up, Sonia placing flowers on graves at the central cemetery
16. Med shot, family members writing in the grave the name of the deceased
18. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sonia Bermúdez, Coroner, Gente Como Uno cemetery:
“It’s difficult work and very trying, but we bury them with dignity, as all human beings deserve.”
19. Various shots, Sonia preparing the graves for the deceased
When Venezuelan refugees and migrants who die in Colombia cannot afford a decent burial, coroner Sonia Bermúdez ensures they have a final resting place.
Bermúdez founded a non-profit dedicated to providing a dignified burial to the recently deceased in Colombia, regardless of their nationality or their family’s ability to pay.
“Gente Como Uno,” or “People like Us,” was launched in 1996 when Colombia was in the throes of a bloody, 50-year-long civil conflict. The non-profit carried out the whole funeral process for the destitute and acquired a cemetery to provide a final resting place for those buried. Now more than 300 plots are occupied by Venezuelans, refugees and migrants driven from home by widespread hunger and insecurity, who died in Colombia.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sonia Bermúdez, Coroner, Gente Como Uno cemetery:
“I began by burying the first displaced people who died here, and it was like a domino effect.”
Even as a child, Bermúdez visited cemeteries where her father worked as a security guard.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sonia Bermúdez, Coroner, Gente Como Uno cemetery:
“We collect and prepare the body and transport the body and the family."
An estimated 1.7 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants have sought safety in Colombia in recent years. While there is no estimate of how many of the 5.4 million Venezuelans who have fled the country have perished abroad, stories of people hit by vehicles as they trudge along the shoulder of the highways, or succumbing to illnesses or exhaustion along the way, are tragically frequent throughout the region.
While Sonia has received funding from organizations including UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the costs of running the small NGO often outstrip its small budget, meaning that she must reach into her own pocket to bury those in need.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sonia Bermúdez, Coroner, Gente Como Uno cemetery:
“It gave me the opportunity to have a fuller view on what happens with cadavers. And it sparked my desire to help those people without any means to get a burial.”
Yet still, she remains unflaggingly committed to her mission of making sure that the poor and most vulnerable are buried with dignity, regardless of their nationality or legal status.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sonia Bermúdez, Coroner, Gente Como Uno cemetery:
“It’s difficult work and very trying, but we bury them with dignity, as all human beings deserve.”
