Migrant teenagers

Juan David Rincón (13) raises his hand and waves from a distance. Behind him walks his “batucada” (street band) companions with snare drums and drums. From the opposite side, Dairilys Maurera (16) smiles and walks towards them confidently. She is accompanied by a group of teenagers with whom she composes songs about their feelings as Venezuelan migrants in Colombia.

The Quinta Oriental Sports Center in Cúcuta is filled with sounds and laughter when the two groups of teenagers meet to share their passion for music. This park, located in the center of a city located on the border with Venezuela, is the improvised setting for the first joint rehearsal, and the ideal refuge to withstand the afternoon heat. Juan David and Dairilys exchange glances and greet each other shyly. Minutes later, the voices and drums come together strongly in a song in Spanish that translates as follows:

Firm, resistant step.

We are strong, resilient, emerging and influential.

A forceful present.

Artists of life.

With the reins in hand,

We choose the path that leads our steps.

We are strong when we hug.

Greatness is finding ourselves.

For Juan David, music is a ground cable that allows him not to feel “angry”. Dairilys believes that composing her songs and singing in a group helps her “release feelings” and is a way of telling her story.

The integration process in the host country

In just a few years, Colombia has welcomed the largest number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela: 2.9 million[1]. The integration path is always hard for a migrant and much more so for adolescents. UNICEF's mission is to promote the protection of the rights of children and adolescents. Therefore, through local implementing partners, it carries out programs that facilitate integration and promote respect for the rights to survival and development; specialized health and education.

The stories of Juan David and Dairilys, who have lived since 2019 in the La Fortaleza settlement of Cúcuta and in the La Parada neighborhood of Villa del Rosario respectively, coincide with those of thousands of Venezuelan migrants throughout Latin America. In Colombia alone, UNICEF estimates that there are more than 135,000 Venezuelan girls and boys outside the educational system.

A protective space against infinite risks

Dairilys is one of the 230 girls, boys and adolescents who attend the Alternative Care and Reception Space for Children and Adolescents (EACANNA), created by UNICEF together with the implementing partner CIDEMOS, as a violence prevention and integration strategy. There, they receive emotional support, engage in artistic activities and level up their studies to enter formal education and acquire life skills.

[1] According to figures updated as of August 2023 by the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V).

The EACANNA building stands out in the neighborhood for its colorful facade, a work of art made by teenagers with soda caps. A few meters from this space is the Simón Bolívar International Bridge, which connects Colombia and Venezuela. The neighborhood is called La Parada, and it is the first place that those who cross the border to the Colombian side come across. Most of the inhabitants are migrant families who survive with informal jobs or street vending, and who face the pressure of illegal business, armed groups and scenes of violence.

“Before, there was no infrastructure dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of the rights of boys and girls in spaces like these. The La Parada sector is special because there is a formal border crossing and multiple irregular or informal border crossings. It is a territory highly affected by dynamics derived from armed conflict, but also from typical urban violence. The lives of boys and girls, both Colombians and migrants were happening in that scenario, also spending many hours on the streets,” explained UNICEF Migration Area in Colombia Protection Officer, Luis Eduardo Ríos. In this context, the role of EACANNA became essential.

Dairilys, her mother and her three brothers -5, 8 and 11 years old- live in a room in a boarding house in La Parada. The five of them sleep on a mattress on the floor. In addition, they share a bathroom and a small kitchen with other families. They lived on the streets during their first six months in Colombia, and that was where UNICEF staff met them and considered them to be at high risk.

Her mother works at a stall selling drinks on the street near the Simón Bolívar International Bridge and, despite the danger involved in taking her children to that place, she prefers to do so rather than leave them alone in the boarding house. Dairilys and her siblings attend EACANNA from Monday to Friday in the afternoon, but they spend the mornings at the stall accompanying their mother; enduring heat, hunger, exposed to the presence of armed groups and witnessing scenes of violence.

For Dairilys, arriving at EACANNA is synonymous with peace, after a whole day on the street or in the guesthouse. “I feel like that peace, that relief that here is going to be a different time from the routine that I have all day. I feel excitement and tranquility,” she said.

The spaces created or supported by UNICEF seek to provide them with protection and promote their integral development. “These boys and girls had to accompany their parents or stay alone in their homes. And they were on the street all day, exposed to risky situations. So EACANNA was born as a proposal for them to be in a place surrounded by professionals and with the tools to recognize themselves as subjects of rights,” said Luis Eduardo Ríos.

“In this area you see a lot of violence against women,” said Dairilys. “I was surprised how other teenagers my same age, even younger than me, offered their sexual services, as if it was worthless,” she added. Through workshops and talks at EACANNA, the teenager found a way to communicate her feelings: “I realized that I could express myself through music, through art.”

Much more than noise

Juan David attends the adolescent meetings organized by the Moiras Foundation, UNICEF's implementing partner in Cúcuta, once a week. The project aims to prevent violence, including gender-based violence, and strengthen the life skills of adolescents. In 2023, the project added the street band idea, an initiative that seeks to empower adolescents and integrate them through music.

The teenager cycles through countless ups and downs on dirt streets, to finally reach a business located at the exit of the La Fortaleza neighborhood. There a Moiras van picks him up to take him to a square in the center of the city.

Juan David likes where he lives and enjoys the life he leads with his mother and three brothers. “I live in a humble, but honest, little house. We had a happy time at home. If I have nothing to do, I do homework, if not football,” he said.

He remembers the day his mother enrolled him in Moiras: “She told me that they would teach me music, how to play the drum and that we would do ‘batucadas’. I loved the proposal because I really like music. When you start making the rhythm it sounds ugly, but when the teacher tunes us up, the sound changes to something more beautiful. I feel like an emotion to continue playing better and I feel happy.”

Back to education

The four years it took Dairilys to set foot in a classroom again seemed eternal. “I was sad, because since I was little, I have always liked studying and going to school. I was always thinking about that, and I already wanted to return to Venezuela to continue studying," she said. After she got her residence permit, she began taking classes at EACANNA, where she is provided with non-formal education to try to get into formal education.

“When I walked into this place, I was kind of shy. Then, with the help of the teachers and other classmates, I began to adapt. And when I saw the possibility of studying and leveling up to be able to be in the grade I was in, I was excited,” said the teenager.

Juan David spent an entire year without being able to attend school since he arrived in Colombia, because he had no way to prove his previous studies in Venezuela. As mentioned, Dairilys spent four years outside the educational system. She wanted to continue sixth grade, but bureaucratic obstacles prevented her from doing so again and again. Now she is finishing her high school degree in a learning acceleration program.

The main problem was the lack of documentation. "It was hard for me, because everything I had learned in Venezuela I had already forgotten," said Juan David. His mother Diana moved heaven and earth until he was allowed to take exams to resume a grade according to his age. He is currently in seventh grade at the Padre Arturo Zárate Ramírez school.

Risks and care options

Juan David and Dairilys migrated to escape the difficulties they faced in their country. They carried the frustration of seeing their dreams paused. They left behind friendships, memories and dreams to start from scratch in Colombia with a part of their families.

Both live in neighborhoods where they face risks associated with violence: with the presence of armed groups, children sexual exploitation networks, child labor recruitment and murders. But they found in EACANNA and Fundación Moiras places where they feel and are protected. Today they both greatly value what they have earned in these places. They feel that they are driven to be better people and pursue their dreams.

They are just two faces that reflect thousands of boys and girls who left their countries in search of better destinations, and who demonstrate that when migration is addressed appropriately, it can also become an opportunity for human development, said Ríos.

UNICEF works on programs in various countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to ensure that adolescents like Dairilys and Juan David can exercise their rights and see themselves included in the host countries so that they can be what they dream and want to be.