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UNHCR in Venezuela a LOOK BACK at 2018

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UNHCR in Venezuela a LOOK BACK at 2018 UNHCR in Venezuela A LOOK BACK AT 2018 Protecting refugees, asylum- seekers and other persons of concern by making their communities stronger Contents 3 A message from UNHCR’s Representative in Venezuela 4 Community Based Protection 6 Community Based Protection in fgures in 2018 8 Protecting children and survivors of SGBV 12 SGBV and Child Protection. Our results in 2018 14 International Protection, Working with Authorities 15 Refugee Status Determination, Documentation and Repatriation 16 Prevention of Statelessness 18 Protection and Safe Spaces Networks 19 Puppetry shows that health matters 20 Country Map and Contacts 23 UNHCR Venezuela’s Impact in 2018 24 UNHCR a brief history 2 • UNHCR in Venezuela • A message from UNHCR’s Representative in Venezuela vulnerable populations in the country. A message In Venezuela, since refugees and other per- sons of concern to UNHCR live within the com- munities, UNHCR’s programmes have been in the from UNHCR’s form of community based projects in protection, education, health and water/sanitation, targeting Representative host communities, and aimed at ensuring pacifc coexistence between refugees and their hosts. Much as we have been ambitious in extending in Venezuela support to most of our benefciary population, logistical challenges and security concerns in some communities limited our access. In 2018, There couldn’t have been a more symbolic sign we were only able to operate in 90 communi- depicting the state of affairs in Venezuela than the ties out of the 110 communities, mainly in the earthquake that welcomed me on my frst day in border areas with Colombia and Brazil, where the offce on 21 August 2018, and it did not take we had conducted needs assessments. We also me long to come to grasp with the tremendous supported the voluntary repatriation of refugees, socio-economic and political challenges that the particularly Colombians who had expressed their country was and is still going through. It is within desire to do so. Another area of utmost impor- this context that UNHCR is delivering protection tance for UNHCR has been the prevention of and assistance to refugees, asylum-seekers and statelessness, particularly among the indigenous members of the host communities that live with populations. them. I was entrusted with the responsibility of Our work in 2018 has also enabled us to managing an agency that has been working in the identify operational areas in our delivery that country for nearly three decades and with feld require improvements and enhancements in presence in fve states and assistance programmes order to strengthen our response to the ever in 10 states for some of the most vulnerable increasing needs in our prioritized commu- populations, particularly along the borders with nities. This will entail adapting to a changing Colombia and Brazil. Being the only UN Agency operational context and expanding the scope with Field Offces/presence outside the capital, of our action in Venezuela, both directly and Caracas, it came as no surprise that many Venezu- through our implementing and operational elans in the feld locations identify UNHCR as “the partners. In 2018 UNHCR also supported other UN”. UN Agencies to establish their presence in the In line with its global mandate, UNHCR in field through sharing of office premises. This Venezuela plays a support role to the Govern- has greatly enhanced our coordination with the ment in its response to the protection needs of Agencies and facilitated synergy of our efforts refugees, asylum-seekers, displaced persons in order to avoid duplication of humanitarian and the communities that host them. I thus assistance activities. immediately took it upon myself to strengthen In the following pages we have attempted our working relationship with the Government, to highlight our modest achievements, whilst relevant Ministries, particularly the Ministry of also discussing some of the challenges we have Foreign Affairs and the institutional counterparts encountered in the discharge UNHCR’s mandate of UNHCR Venezuela, principally the National in Venezuela. Strengthening of our collaboration Commission for Refugees (CONARE) and the with our governmental and non-governmental Offce of the Ombudsperson. partners, closer coordination with other UN I am pleased to say that this action has met Agencies, as well as enhancement of our own with some success and contributed to facilitating capacities should equip us well enough to effec- UNHCR’s work on behalf of its persons of concern. tively discharge our mission in Venezuela in 2019 Nonetheless, we also acknowledge that more work and years to come. and perseverance are needed on our part to bring Matthew Crentsil to full fruition our efforts to reach out to the most Representative, UNHCR Venezuela, January 2019 UNHCR in Venezuela • 3 Community-based Protection: How a stronger, empowered and more resilient community takes care of its people From afar, it looks like an offwhite spot Where hope is at the bottom of a giant dun-brown made in anthill. The El Colibrí is where 119 refugee Latin America’s boys and girls, undocumented and local largest barrio children, some with specific needs, are fed and looked after with the support of UNHCR´s partner Fundación Luz y Vida. Children, those between 5 and 14 are The Centro El Colibrí faces a lonely open taught to read, write and acquire some space in Petare, Latin America’s larg- basic mathematics skills and helped with est informal urban settlement, a small the catch-up classes they need to enter square where children play next to a the Venezuelan formal schooling system. modest shrine dedicated to Antonio Those who are younger are taken care Jose de Sucre, one of the continent’s of in the nursery until their mothers or independence war leaders. It lies at the fathers come back from work to pick bottom of a hill in the outskirts of Great- them up. er Caracas that is covered with ram- These activities had been taking shackle and haphazardly built homes, place for a quarter of a century, through electrical wires and open air plumbing the efforts of Petare’s madres cuidadoras that is a testimony to the inventiveness -caring mothers- but the wear of the and resilience of the barrios inhabitants. years had gradually turned El Colibrí into 4 • UNHCR in Venezuela • Community-based Protection Our work in communities UNHCR has been working in Venezuela since 1991. That year the United Nations Refugee Agency was invited to set up an operation in the country to respond to the needs of Colombians who had fed from the civil war that was tearing up their country. Today, as we are approaching three full decades of presence in the country, UNHCR has consolidated its position as one of the pre-eminent UN agencies in EL COLIBRÍ IS Venezuela, with almost 80 members of WHERE 119 staff at the end of 2018, a Representa- tion and a Field Unit in Caracas and Field REFUGEE Offces in Maracaibo (Zulia), San Cristobal BOYS AND (Táchira), Guasdalito (Apure) and Ciudad GIRLS, ARE Guayana (Bolivar). FED AND Throughout 2018, UNHCR worked in 90 prioritised communities that were LOOKED selected on the basis of their hosting AFTER refugees and asylum-seekers, the needs WITH THE of the people living in them and the SUPPORT capacity on the part of UNHCR of making OF UNHCR a real difference in their lives. It did this a less than hospitable place for the niños through community-based projects in PARTNER sin nombre -nameless children- of the protection, health, education and water FUNDACIÓN barrio . That was the case until UNHCR and sanitation. LUZ Y VIDA and Fundacion Luz y Vida took up the UNHCR strives to make that challenge to restore and rehabilitate its difference through a community-based spaces, fixing windows, roofs, classroom approach. That means that its activities furniture, sanitary facilities, connecting are targeted in such a way as to bene- the building to water and power utilities, ft both the local persons of concern, painting its interiors and installing water refugees and asylum-seekers, and the tanks and filters. members of the host community, with no Now the rejuvenated El Colibri stands difference in treatment. once again proudly at the bottom of one This is what we call community-based of Petare’s pullulating urban hills and protection, a strategy that is designed to serves not only as a school and day-care tightly knit communities by integrating all centre for the barrio’s most vulnerable their members, independently of who they children, but also as a community centre are and where their come from. that provides adults with free legal, Where refugees not only survive, psycho-social and family counselling but thrive, communities do not only get by services and organises activities to em- in their day to day lives, but rather grow power residents to prevent and respond stronger and more resilient in the face of to cases of sexual and gender-based security threats, environmental risks and violence and risks to child protection. social and economic diffculties. UNHCR in Venezuela • Community-based Protection • 5 90 prioritised communities Community-based 8.400 refugees protection 142 asylum-seekers fgures for 2018 UNHCR and the pending on the tide, the caños either pour 58.000 fresh water into the Ocean, or bring in the persons in indigenous Warao salt water from the sea. This constant ebb refugee-like and fow regulates the lives of the Warao, situations Wisidatus join who don’t often interact with the outside forces to fght world and share a historically justifed sus- AIDS in the Delta picion of outsiders with many indigenous 640.000 groups in the region. But they are quick to persons of Amacuro sense when something good comes their concern way and they are ready to embrace it.
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