By Sonia Agnesod | Planning, coordination and compliance
Cali, 9 October 2023 – Originally from Miranda, Venezuela, Nunzia migrated two years ago to Cali, Colombia, along with her 20-year-old daughter, driven by the hope of reuniting with her two children already residing in the city.
“The moment I crossed the Arauca River, on the border between Colombia and Venezuela, I had a mix of emotions: behind me was my country and family and ahead, there was hope,” she explains.
Shortly after her joyful reunion with her children in Cali, Nunzia realized that things weren’t going as planned. Her family ended up on the streets,and her daughter started going through a tough time with her mental health.
Nunzia’s first encounter with the health team working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) took place during an educational event in 2021. They played a crucial role in helping her daughter access mental health care through telemedicine, a service facilitated through an agreement with the Mental Hospital of Antioquia.
Nunzia attended these appointments to support her daughter. Through IOM, she met other Venezuelan women who introduced her to the Community Health Network (CHN), a close-knit support community which offers guidance and training to help fellow Venezuelans access essential health care services and take action to safeguard their health and well-being.
Nunzia immediately realized that this would be her avenue to make a meaningful impact in the world. “Meeting other Venezuelans and immersing myself in community work was incredibly rewarding,” she explains. “The way I felt helping others solidified my determination to follow my passion: working for the betterment of our communities.”
Today, Nunzia is a prominent leader with the Liderando Esperanzas (Leading Hope) CHN in Cali, where she continues to promote the mental health and psychosocial well-being of refugees, migrants and members of host communities.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
