25 Feb MIGRATE AS A FAMILY, ACCOMPANY IN NETWORKING/ARGENTINE
Migrate as a family, accompany in networking
We left Venezuela in 2019, with the desire to preserve the most important human right, the right to live, we were looking for a better life quality, nourishment, health and peace. We left everything behind, our land, our bonds and even our professions. Living in Venezuela nowadays means living in constant psychological conflict, anxiety, depression together with the imminent consequent risk that conveys being an opponent to the regime.
In mid-2020, during the COVID 19 quarantine, we met the sisters, Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Episcopal Commission for Migrants. With no job and being a family of nine, six adults, one of which elderly, and three children, two of them still breastfeeding, we had no food to eat and our debts were accumulating day by day. Immersed in anguish and the most chaotic of situations, I saw a publication on a social network where CEMI offered help to needy migrants. I decided to write with the last bit of hope and faith I could find in my heart, we really needed help, we were spending the hours of our days queuing for food wherever we could.
To my surprise, we received and answer to my mail putting us in contact with a sister who with great kindness received our case and began to help us. We felt that a miraculous blessing had come to our lives. We received food and clothing; I still remember the joy we felt at home when those first supplies arrived; we needed everything, even the basics for the children. As from that moment and until today the sisters are still accompanying us in this difficult process of migrating, a process that becomes even harder in times of pandemic.
At the end of 2020, my daughter and her husband contracted Covid 19, which made our scenario even more complicated, the anguish multiplies when having an elderly and high-risk adult in the family. The sisters, our guardian angels in Buenos Aires, were a constant help and support, not only with the medication that we could not afford but also by giving us the strength and courage we lacked. The limited space for isolation, made us all get infected, even my mother, but thanks be to God, the Virgin and the support received by the CEMI and the Sisters, we survived the virus! We were literally able to overcome the covid in the midst of so much adversity, far from the land where we were born, far from home and from our family.
The support we received transcended all borders, my brother who had migrated to Panama with his family, at the beginning of this year 2021, also contracted Covid 19 together with his family, being himself the most affected, he had to be hospitalized and lost his job. The sisters from Buenos Aires were able to put him in contact with the sisters in Panama who sent him food and donated the money for the treatment and medicines he needed to regain his health, recover and be able to start working again.
The vulnerability of migrants in times of pandemic stands out stronger than ever; more than ever migrants need the help of organizations to make it through this difficult process that puts life in moments of deep anguish and desperation. The need of feeling accompanied is crucial. We want to thank, with all our hearts, the help we received form the sisters Handmaids of the SC of Jesus and form CEMI. We also want to thank Caritas in Panama and the Hogar Luisa. All of you have not only accompanied us in the process, you gave us strength and faith. We thank your organizations based on goodwill, your admirable altruism, your dedication in helping those who are forced to leave their lands. Your mission made our survival possible. In the middle of migration, the virus hit us hard and your loving presence, your dedication and unwavering faith held us, day after day, giving back lost hope to our families. For all this, we have no doubt that you have become our angels on earth, thank you so much!
As long as there’s life beating, there’s still hope!
Lormys y su familia (nombre ficticio)
Buenos Aires 21/02/21
