Serving Venezuelan Migrants in Colombia

Buenos dias from Colombia! I am here in the town of Sincelejo in the north west of the country, accompanying Ruth Parrot on her Methodist Women in Britain (MWiB) presidential overseas visit.

Ruth is passionate about gender equality, girl’s education and climate action. Colombia has a variety of contexts that are helping us explore these themes through a global lense, not least thanks to the work of the Colombian Methodist Church in several vulnerable communities across the country.

As Colombia emerges from decades of conflict and strives to implement the 2016 Peace Treaty signed by the State and the largest of the guerrilla groups in the country (the Revolutionary Armed forces in Colombia, the FARC), the Colombian Methodist Church continues to minister to isolated, rural communities, migrants, vulnerable women and children, Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Colombian communities.

On our first official day of our programme, we met Jaimey, the church’s National Coordinator for Migration. Jaime Coordinate 7 programmes across the country that host activities for Venezuelan migrants, of which Colombia has welcomed 2.5 million since the start of the economic, social and political crisis there. Along with Bishop Luis Andres Caicedo we travelled to the holiday town of Santa Marta to visit one of these projects. The project works with about 50 Venezuelan children and their mothers, offering various courses and support that enables them to feel seen and valued. The courses give these Venezuelan children hope for their futures and enables the church to witness to the local community. A local community leader, who is not a Methodist or a Christian of another denomination, has been so moved by the work of the church that he agreed to host the project at his Chinese restaurant for free!

The attached photos introduce you to Jaimey and give you a glimpse of the music class that we saw when we visited the work.

God bless!

Sandra Lopez
Partnership Coordinator for the Americas

left to right bishop luis andres ruth parrott jaimey michael parrott and local minister revd elsy

street life in sincelejo

migrant project