As reported by the Pew Research Center, the DHS report details, “For example, many Guatemalan children come from rural areas, indicating they are probably seeking economic opportunities in the U.S. Salvadoran and Honduran children, on the other hand, come from extremely violent regions where they probably perceive the risk of traveling alone to the U.S. preferable to remaining at home.”

Poverty is also a primary factor as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are among the poorest nations in Latin America with Honduras having 30 percent, Guatemala, 26 percent and El Salvador, 17 percent of people living in poverty on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank.

To meet the needs of youth who have fled their Central American homes alone to make their way to Mexico, Salesian missionaries already working in border towns in Mexico such as Tijuana, Mexicali, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Acuña and Nuevo Laredo (among others), are responding with emergency shelter, food and other assistance. The journey these young people take from their Central American communities into these Mexican towns is fraught with danger. Many youth have died or have become seriously injured along the trip and others, faced with little food and water along the way, have fallen prey to theft, sex traffickers and other violence.

Once youth reach the border towns, Salesians there provide the essential first step of meeting their basic needs and offering them a safe place to stay. After settling into Salesian shelters, youth can access other Salesian services such as structured recreation and social activities that provide a way for them to bond with their peers and develop additional interests and skills.

“We reach out to them to provide a home, a school, a parish and a place where youth can meet and share as friends,” says Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez, S.D.B., Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. “Our goal is to address their essential needs.”

For decades, Salesian missionaries have been working throughout Central America on behalf of impoverished youth to tackle the root problems that have caused so many of them to flee. Much of this work focuses on improving economic opportunity through education and workforce development, teaching youth the skills necessary to find and retain long-term employment and become contributing members of their communities.

A cross with a kite attached to it marks where a child died tried to make it into the United States by crossing the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The river is lined with similar heart-breaking memorials to lost children.

In San Salvador, El Salvador, the Don Bosco Worker Technical Institute offers free education and job training to marginalized youth at risk of joining gangs. As an alternative to criminal activity, more than 400 students pursue training in electricity, mechanics, carpentry, welding and tailoring.

“We cannot change the culture of violence and drugs — the same culture that so many youth migrants are fleeing — with an iron fist,” says Father Jose Moratalla, S.D.B., director of the institute. “Instead, we must use education to produce a new generation of entrepreneurs who can respond positively to the challenges and needs of their country.”

In Guatemala, Salesian missionaries are leading a broad and intensive educational effort that is training hundreds of teachers. In rural mountain villages throughout the country, 835 local students are enrolled in a three-year teacher training course. Upon receiving their certification, the new teachers will serve as many as 600 villages.

“Since this program was initiated, the number of schools in the Alta Verapaz region has doubled,” says Father Tony DeGroot, S.D.B., who founded the initiative. “Now, children who were previously destined to be trapped by a lifetime of illiteracy can see the path to a productive future.”

In Honduras, Salesian missionaries have been working for more than 100 years operating schools, youth centers and medical clinics to help support and educate impoverished youth and their families. In a country where one in four residents struggles with chronic malnutrition, food assistance plays a critical role in as many Salesian-run programs as possible.

“While the recent surge of unaccompanied minors traveling to the U.S. has drawn the nation’s attention to the daily horrors these children face — rampant gang-related violence, brutal murders and devastating poverty — the reality is that these conditions have existed in Central America for a very long time,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Any resolution to this complex situation demands a multi-dimensional response, one that upholds our moral obligation to the children who have already arrived, and one that works to effect systemic, sustainable change on behalf of those who remain in their home countries.”

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Sources:

Pew Research Center – DHS: Violence, poverty, is driving children to flee Central America to U.S.

Salesian Missions – Hope for Central American Child Migrant Crisis

The post CENTRAL AMERICA: Salesian Missionaries Assist Youth Fleeing Poverty, Violence by Focusing on Prevention first appeared on MissionNewswire.

“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 neighborhood, Padilla said, adding: “It was rumored 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 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.

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By Babar Baloch in San Lorenzo, Ecuador (UNHCR) | PHOTO: B. Balach/UNHCR

See this news article in its original location.

See related article: “New Beginnings” Program Expands to Assist Colombian Refugees in Four Countries

The post UNHCR: Violence in Colombia Displacing More People into Ecuador first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The three-year program will focus on Colombian refugees living Ecuador, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Panama due to ongoing internal conflict in Colombia, which has resulted in the displacement of more than four million Colombians in the last two decades.

According to 2011 data from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) more than 90% of the 454,088 known Colombian refugees and asylum seekers now live in the neighboring countries of Ecuador (167,189), Venezuela (215,685), Panama (17,714), and Costa Rica (19,703).

“Many of the Colombian refugees have no marketable skills. They can’t find jobs and the lack of training makes it difficult to start their own business or join with others to form cooperatives. Without jobs, it is hard to find stability for their families and build new lives. For example, younger children may not attend school and the cycle of poverty continues,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Through the “New Beginnings” program, Colombian refugees will receive training and technical skills that will enable them to find gainful employment. In addition, the recipients will receive human development workshops developed through a grant with the WK Kellogg Foundation, as well as job placement services.

According to Fr. Hyde, job placement specialists in each target country will consult with local employers and existing ministry of labor contacts to ensure the job training programs meet the needs of the marketplace.

In addition to the estimated 5,100 students who will receive job training, Salesian Missions expects the program to indirectly benefit 26,520 family members. The program will reach refugees in 18 different regions throughout Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, and Costa Rica.

“Many of these refugees live in rural villages where access to technical training is often difficult to attain,” explains Edson Timana, a program officer with the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs. Timana is currently traveling to all program sites throughout the four countries to prepare them to implement the programs prior to the arrival of the refugees.

The program will also ensure that the Colombian refugees are formalizing their status as registered refugees. It is estimated that only around 22% of Colombian refugees are registered and accounted for.

“If a refugee is not counted – or is considered ‘vanished’ – it makes it that much more difficult to provide long-term solutions for them,” says Fr. Hyde. “For example, in the four countries we’ve targeted, only registered refugees can legally work, making the registration component critically important. Our goal is to have one hundred percent of students enrolled in the program formalizing their status as registered refugees and then they can begin to build a new life in their new country.”

Fr. Hyde adds that cultural understanding is another aspect of ensuring refugees long-term achievement in their new country.

“We’ve seen that Colombian refugees face high levels of discrimination because of harmful stereotypes. Discrimination affects the refugees’ ability to find jobs, housing and even basic services. The stereotypes also affect the refugees’ sense of self. That’s why we’re including spaces for positive exchanges, as well as conflict mitigation, between Colombian refugees and members of the local host community in the program,” says Fr. Hyde. This includes integrating refugee students with host country students in courses and workshops, vocational training fairs and sports and cultural activities to promote social interaction.

The “New Beginnings” program is designed to meet the goals of the UNHCR/International Organization for Migration/Ministers Foreign Affairs; Colombia, Ecuador Assistance Plan for Colombian Refugees (December 2010), which seeks to support priorities and pilot programs which will advance the sustainable reintegration of Colombians who decide to return home while improving the living conditions of those Colombians who continue to stay abroad by, “promoting their socio-economic inclusion in society with proper access to employment, basic health services, education and housing.”

The most recent Salesian Missions’ “New Beginnings” commenced at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. The first program was launched in 2005 in Colombia, with a focus on providing vocational training, job placement, and healthcare assistance to persons displaced by the country’s ongoing civil conflict. Last year an additional New Beginnings project commenced in Tamil Nadu, India, providing vocational skills, human development, and job placement assistance to Sri Lankan refugees. In both India and Colombia, students received and continue to receive training in skill areas ranging from video production to carpentry to wind turbine repair and maintenance.

The Salesians are widely considered the world’s largest provider of technical and vocational training. Salesians around the world operate an extensive network of schools: more than 1,316 elementary; 1,400 intermediary and secondary; 32 colleges and universities; 300 industrial skills trade/vocational; 90 agricultural; 860 nurseries; 220 clinics and hospitals; and 1,670 social assistance centers and programs for orphans and street children.

The post CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA: “New Beginnings” Program Expands to Assist Colombian Refugees in Four Countries first appeared on MissionNewswire.