Colombia: Humanitarian Assistance to Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons

Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
November 20, 2007

Colombia, November 2007: The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) provides humanitarian assistance to millions of Colombia refugees and internally displaced persons in Colombia and throughout Latin America. In October, 2007 Kathryn Pongonis, PRM’s Washington-based Andean Program Officer visited Colombia and Ecuador to review existing programs and assess future needs. She was hosted by PRM’s Bogota-based Refugee Coordinator, Tom Targos. They met with representatives of various PRM implementing partners, the United Nations’ major refugee organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), American Red Cross, Mercy Corps, and the Cooperative Housing Foundation, to visit and assess PRM-funded projects. Colombia is estimated to have the world’s second largest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) after Sudan. Estimates for the total number of displaced range from 2 million to 3.8 million, representing 5% to 8% of Colombia’s total population. Fifty years of armed conflict is a major cause of internal displacement in Colombia, mostly at the hands of left-wing guerrilla organizations such as the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and illegal paramilitary groups. On average, over 220,000 people continue to be displaced each year. Indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples comprise one-third of all internally displaced people in Colombia. Nearly 500,000 displaced Colombians have relocated to other countries in the region. Through PRM and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government provided $46 million in FY07 to assist Colombia displaced and refugees. Photos courtesy of Kathryn Pongonis, PRM/ECA Andean Program Officer		The PRM-funded partner, American Red Cross, cooperates with the Colombian Red Cross in Baranquilla, Colombia to host a health brigade to provide medical services to internally displaced persons during the first 90 day emergency phase of their displacement. These children are participating in a psycho-social support component of the health services program.
		PRM Refugee Coordinator, Tom Targos, and American Red Cross Regional Representative, Dr. Roberto Brito, chat with an elderly beneficiary of the American Red Cross Health Brigade in Baranquilla, Bogota. The Brigade is a set of temporary health clinics set up monthly to serve the displaced during the first three months of their displacement. The clinics offer dental, gynecological, maternal and child health, psycho-social counseling, immunization, and pharmaceutical services in communities where the displaced live.
		During American Red Cross Health Brigades, residents of the displaced community lend their homes as spaces for volunteer Red Cross doctors to provide services to over 200 beneficiaries.
		These Afro-Colombian children are beneficiaries of a shelter project in Baranquilla, Colombia, enjoying new homes like the one pictured. USAID cooperates with the Pan American Development Foundation on many mid-to-long term projects, such as income generation, shelter, medical support, community integration and infrastructure development, and education.
		This block house belonging to displaced Afro-Colombians was constructed in part by USAID and the Pan American Development Foundation.
		PRM-funded partner, International Organization for Migration (IOM), funds a shelter project in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, on the Northern border with Colombia. This family did not have the materials necessary to build a complete house. With IOM’s assistance, they were able to enclose the previous open structure and install a roof.