Photos by Miguel Varona, Words by Ximena Greenhouse

Riohacha, La Guajira, Colombia– Comunidad El Pasito is located in the outskirts of Riohacha, Colombia. It is considered remote because of a lack of direct access to proper roads, that often get flooded. This community is mainly composed of Venezuelan immigrants who have just arrived or are in the process of settling into neighborhoods that they can barely afford.

The heat is always sweltering and there is rarely a passing of cooling breeze. The light brown dirt roads encompass the trajectory and lead up to each individual house. There are different types of homes in this community. Some are made of wooden planks, others of aluminum roof sheets, or clay, or plastic nylon sheets. There are fences built to differentiate between each other’s properties, and curious children peer through them as we pass, alongside the clucking chickens and lean-looking mutts scurrying around. People are always looking up with hope in their eyes.

One member of this community is Lujaris del Carmen Báez Fernández, a 33-year-old Venezuelan immigrant, who belongs to the indigenous Wayuu community from Maracaibo. She is 22 weeks pregnant with her second child. We first see her sitting on a plastic chair waiting for our arrival. She is wearing a long, brightly colored, floral, loose-fitting gown. She greets us, but otherwise listens quietly as the nutritionist tells us about her experience treating Lujaris. Living in El Pasito makes getting standard medical care for her child, and herself, sometimes impossible.

Malteser International Americas has made it easier for her to get the access she needs through laboratory exams, immunizations, obstetrics, and gynecology, as well as nutritional support.

MI Americas programs have brought access to vulnerable groups impacted by crisis, migration, and malnutrition, including a large segment of refugees from Venezuela. Primary healthcare services provided include medical consultations, prenatal checks, psychological and psychiatric consultations, nutrition services, and the provision of medical supplies and medication.

Lujaris is a resilient woman that has faced many challenges. When she lived in Maracaibo, she knew that with her first son, Jose, on the way, she wouldn’t be able to make ends meet. Life was too expensive, and the pressure she had was also affecting her health leading to being underweight during her pregnancy. She faced this incertitude with her husband, and they both decided the best thing for them, and their unborn child was to leave Venezuela. Lujaris, like many other Venezuelan immigrants facing instability in their home country, have fled due to lack of opportunities and no other choices. She raised 20,000 pesos ($20 USD), while back in Venezuela cleaning houses to pay the fee to cross the border.

With a heavy heart, having to leave family and friends behind, they made their way to Riohacha, Colombia. She was 6 months into her first pregnancy when she was able to contact Malteser International Americas.

Thanks to this effort, she was able to get help with medical and psychological care, and at this point was able to gain adequate nutrition, proper pre-natal control, which led to a weight gain of over 4 kilos. During pregnancy, nutrition vulnerability is at its greatest, with a healthy diet critical to ensure the well-being of both mother and child.

During our visit with Lujaris, she proudly takes us to her house, a single-story room made with stacked layers of clay, large wooden sticks, and the roof sheets held together by car tires. The heat is stronger once we step inside the one-room she calls home. Inside, her young toddler son is sleeping on top of a deep blue hammock, placidly. He is only wearing a diaper and sleeps peacefully even though he is covered in sweat. Her son, José Epiayu, now one year and a half old, has also benefitted from Malteser International Americas nutritional support program. He was malnourished but has come out of it and is in a much better place, the nutritionist and Lujaris confirm.

Lujaris is hopeful and confident that the future will be better. She has more support than she had in her home country and is taking active steps to improving both her health and her children’s. With Malteser International Americas support, as well as Lujaris openness to receiving care, Lujaris and her children will have a brighter future. Services like the ones provided by Malteser International Americas to Lujaris, can be completely life-changing for mothers and their young children.

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