Today, June 20, World Refugee Day, is more than just a commemorative date created by the United Nations. It is a day for humanity to remember and reflect on those who face humanitarian crises in their countries of origin and experience forced displacement across the planet.
According to UN figures, by the end of 2023, more than 117 million people remained forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations. Of these, 40% – around 47 million people – are children. According to the representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Brazil, Davide Torzilli, part of this refugee population is made up of around 560,000 Venezuelans.
In this context, Brazil is already home to more than 9,400 indigenous refugees and migrants, five ethnic groups from Venezuela, according to the UNHCR Brazil Indigenous Population Profile Panel. 67%, around 7,500 indigenous people, are from the Warao ethnic group, which means water people in their mother tongue, representing the second largest ethnic group in Venezuela in terms of number of individuals.
In Roraima, through the Roraima Humanitarian Mission, the Fraternity – Intarenational Humanitarian Missions (FIHM), as a response to the Venezuelan crisis, is currently strengthening the culture of the indigenous peoples and their socio-economic inclusion through the Indigenous Cultural and Training Centre (CCFI), has established partnerships and promoted important projects such as the Indigenous Intercultural Fairs, the Continuous Training for Development Program and the incubation of enterprises.
After the initial experience of welcoming Venezuelan migrants, the stage of managing refugee shelters in Boa Vista and Pacaraima, the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM), through the CCFI, began a new phase that allowed indigenous Venezuelans to strengthen their culture and gain autonomy from the possibility of running their own business and financial independence.
The Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM), following the evolution of the dialogue with the Department of the Environment of the municipality of Boa Vista, supported the Warao Artisanship Project by obtaining an environmental license for the harvesting of buriti fiber, which helped the indigenous people to develop their handicraft skills, demonstrating that the harvesting process is not invasive, but takes place in harmony with nature and is self-sustaining, that is, it allows for the self-renewal of the region’s buriti trees.
The Continuing Education for Development Program operates on three fronts: language, technology and technical courses. The program reaches artisans and non-artisans who are included in the training context. At the CCFI, volunteer staff from the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM) and partner institutions give financial education workshops, marketing and entrepreneurship courses, with the aim of transferring knowledge and teaching in practice how to use financial and technological tools, sales techniques and digital marketing so that indigenous migrants can continue their lives independently.
On the other hand, the indigenous intercultural fairs are moments dedicated to the strengthening and cultural exchange of each indigenous people among themselves and among the visiting public, where dance performances, paintings and the telling of legends and stories from indigenous daily life take place. The fairs also strengthen the local economy through the sale of indigenous handicrafts, a practice taught from generation to generation.
This year’s World Refugee Day focuses on the strength and resilience of refugees in the face of climate change, which is becoming more frequent and intense around the world. The focus is on humanity’s response to the exposure of migrants to climate risks, which tend to increase all the time.
Recent figures show that 4.3 million refugees, 580,100 asylum seekers and 50.6 million internally displaced people are in countries exposed to high, severe or extreme levels of climate-related risks, while also facing conflicts. By the end of 2023, around one in ten refugees and asylum seekers, and almost three in four internally displaced people, lived in areas exposed to extreme climate risks.
Today is a day to consider the resigned and intense movement of refugees on a changing planet, their constant struggle for survival, but, above all, it is a time to “unite in a network of world solidarity, of a conscious and planned search for solutions to crises, of opening borders between people and between nations,” points out Juan Diego, a volunteer humanitarian actor from the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM).
