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When Discord Becomes Solidarity

By Merlys Mosquera Chamat
photo Learning about refugees

Juan arrived in Venezuela from Colombia with his mother and four brothers; his father had been assassinated during an incursion by an armed group in which their town had been destroyed.

Juan’s life was turned upside down. At the age of eight he was working in the street to help his mother support the family.

The Jesuit Refugee Service (SJR), which I worked for, was giving the family support, and insisted that Juan must have access to education.

Eventually, Juan began to go to school. In the mornings he sold pastries, and in the afternoons he attended classes. But it was not easy. His schoolmates made fun of him, saying that he was dirty and a beggar.

The ridicule soon turned into fighting and violence. The situation became more and more serious, and neither his teacher nor his mother knew what to do.

His mother eventually approached SJR about her son’s situation, and we approached the school offering assistance.

We worked with the children using play activities to capture their attention. One activity consisted of showing the children drawings of different people and asking them if they could identify which person was a refugee. Of course they chose the worst-dressed people, especially poor women, arguing that a refugee is a poor person, as some said, "without anything to offer."

They associated refugees with armed violence, conflicts and war. Through discussion they came to understand that a refugee can be any person, with different professions, customs and ways of life. Seeing his own life reflected in the content of the activity, Juan opened up and shared his experience. In exchange, his classmates offered support to him in his schoolwork, others began to share their toys. Now Juan is fully integrated into the class and also helps his friends, even if he still sometimes fights! But he is no longer violent. Thanks to cooperation between him, his family, the school and our NGO, he is accepted, and his classmates have learned about the need to understand and reach out to those who are "different."

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Merlys Mosquera Chamat was until recently national director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Venezuela.

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