Migrate and grow: Mirlenis and Elio dream of a better present for their son

Mirlenis Navas (18) and Elio Noel Gamaz (21) met in Colombia. She lived with her family in a small house in the border city of Cúcuta. He was looking for opportunities in this same city to which he had migrated some time ago with his father. They were teenagers and had many things in common, including their status as migrants and the same homeland: Venezuela. By sheer chance, the families shared a roof for a while, and they fell in love there. Mirlenis decided to go with Elio to Chiclayo, in Peru, but they changed their minds on the way and stayed in Lago Agrio, near the northern border of Ecuador, where they currently live.

“After I met Elio, I decided to get out of my house. I practically decided to have an adult life being a child. At that moment, so many things went through my mind, taking the risk, leaving my family behind. That trip was very scary, very scary. Sort of despair, because we went through things that I would not wish for anyone”, recalls Mirlenis with anguish.

On August 23, 2020, they set foot on Ecuadorian soil with 3.50 dollars in their pockets and were very thirsty. They had nothing and knew no one there. It was hot, just like in Aragua and Barquisimeto, their towns in Venezuela. They felt a bit at home. They had been traveling for 16 days and covered 1,000 kilometers. In the end, they crossed the border by canoe because the San Miguel bridge, which separates the department of Putumayo (Colombia) from the province of Sucumbíos (Ecuador), was closed.

They had overcome anxieties, dangers, hunger, cold, and nights in inhospitable places. While the entire world was paralyzed by a pandemic, Mirlenis and Elio walked each day towards a new life. The young couple finally decided to settle down and try their luck. They called César (18), Elio's brother, who had also left Colombia alone and was waiting for them in the cold of Tulcán. Four days later they met in Lago Agrio. Since then, they have not moved again.

Like them, thousands of migrants had arrived in Ecuador. The latest data from the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V) estimates that by September 2022 there were more than 500,000 Venezuelan migrants in Ecuador.

A comprehensive response to address the urgency

In 2018, in response to the migration situation, UNICEF Ecuador, through the Social Inclusion Programme and in coordination with other agencies of the United Nations system, launched a program of unconditional monetary transfers, called the Integral Protection Program for migrant families and Refugees with children and adolescents in Ecuador (PPI). The program, implemented by UNICEF partner organization HIAS, has a comprehensive strategy that combines cash transfers with counseling on rights, access to social services, psychosocial support, and guidance to build a life project.

A month after arriving in Ecuador, Mirlenis noticed changes in her body and began to feel unwell. The HIAS social worker suggested that she take a pregnancy test. “We both opened the envelope together. I was already far from home; I had stopped being a girl a long time ago… And well, keep going with the news”, says about the moment in which she saw the positive result. A few months later, Marlon Diosnel (1) was born.

After an evaluation of the family situation -especially that of Mirlenis and César because they are adolescents-, they were accepted into the UNICEF program, which provides monthly financial aid for nine months. They had previously been beneficiaries of UNHCR assistance, which offers financial support for three months.

Mirlenis acknowledges the importance of receiving support at such a difficult moment: “The organizations were like our family at that time because we didn't have anyone.”

Alexandra Escobar, UNICEF Ecuador Social Policy officer, explains that the program “includes monetary transfers for migrant families because one of the difficulties they arrive with is the lack of financial resources.” However, “the financial resource is the means, not the end. The important thing for us is to ensure that migrant and refugee children and adolescents and their families, who are in a situation of vulnerability, can have comprehensive protection and exercise their rights in the country.”

Since 2020, this program has supported 5,772 people in Ecuador, of which 722 are adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. As soon as they arrive, families can access financial assistance from UNHCR, the amount of which varies depending on the number of children and can last up to three months. Migrant families can also access food vouchers from the World Food Program (WFP), for a period of six to 12 months.

Alisson Orduz, a HIAS social worker, points out that in addition to monetary transfers, adolescents “access various workshops, on ​​economic inclusion, for example, savings and business creation to better manage economic resources; on ​​psychology, issues such as family conflicts, prevention of gender-based violence, among others, are also addressed.”

Elio says that the first months in Lago Agrio were the hardest: “Mirlenis' pregnancy was the most difficult time, it was the stage in which we had to overcome ourselves because we already knew that, despite the fact that we are young, we had the responsibility, not only to pay the rent, not only to pay for electricity, to pay for water, we already had another responsibility, which was our son. Well, I said, we're going to beg on the street, but, for something, we're going to beg, that it's not just for food and paying the rent, but to set up a business.”

Aid multiplies

Two years after arriving in Lago Agrio, Mirlenis and Elio tell their story sitting in the place they rent to live and work: a house that is their home, their bicycle workshop and their barbershop. With great effort, dedication and the support of the organizations, the family managed to get on with their business.

The journey has not been easy. Elio recounts that, when Mirlenis was pregnant, he worked selling candies and ice cream, or begged for money on the streets. He got very tired going from one place to another, and it came to him one day to find a way to get a bicycle. His love for bicycles back in Venezuela and the knowledge he had, allowed him to salvage the right parts and set up a bike.

“Not even a week had passed, and a friend came and told me: Hey, that bike is beautiful, sell it to me. I'll give you 70 dollars.” Elio’s bicycle workshop “Bicilacréate” was born at that moment. He manages this venture while his younger brother César works in the barbershop. They receive everyone with a big smile and proudly show the place.