Jennifer Gonzalez is a 37 years old widow who is Venezuelan by birth. She is a single mother of three children and she never thought this could be her life. Jennifer and her children are refugees who fled Venezuela in April 2018. And now she has no place to call home.

Every day is a day of crisis for Jennifer and a million others like her. Just a short time ago, she worked in a sewing company and lived in her own home, but economic crisis shuttered the doors of the company, leaving Jennifer without an income to care for her family of four.

"Everything in Venezuela is very difficult."

Without work and barely any food, she made the heart wrenching decision to leave everything behind, including family, in hope for a better life in Colombia.

"I had no money and I had to sell everything to survive. When I decided to flee Venezuela for Colombia, my 15-year old son and I left with a small suitcase. We walked a mountain trail and our fear was palpable."

Her other two children stayed with family.

Once in Colombia, Jennifer and her son had to make an even more difficult decision to go their separate ways to find work to survive. She made the decision to travel to La Guajira and her son ventured alone to the capital city of Riohacha, where he eventually found work as a construction assistant. Jennifer is still unemployed, but sometimes finds work doing odd jobs like laundry and cleaning.

While people in her new homeland of Colombia have been kind and charitable, Jennifer has also experienced the harsh reality that refugees are not entirely welcomed in the country. Sadly, this is very typical for refugees to experience in host countries where people are often struggling themselves. But, Jennifer finds comfort in and help at the health brigades we have been supporting in the crisis region. They provide medicine, but also a welcoming atmosphere for approximately 12,000 refugees and migrants who have lost everything and are struggling to just survive.