When we talk about refugee populations, forced displacement and its humanitarian consequences, we are using broad concepts to bring together a diverse, changing population, with multiple origins, ideas, hopes and histories.
Yo me veo - Children and teenagers interpret the world they inhabit through words and images
By Diana Rodríguez Gómez
When we talk about refugee populations, forced displacement and its humanitarian consequences, we are using broad concepts to bring together a diverse, changing population, with multiple origins, ideas, hopes and histories. In this melting pot of experiences, there is a segment of the population, adolescents and young people, who in many cases remain invisible in the midst of figures and statistics.In Ecuador, where around 175,000 people have requested recognition as refugees since 2000, we know from official data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility that 23% of this population would be under 18 years old.
But what are their particularities, skills, challenges to integration? How do they see the world around them, their opportunities? How have their stories of forced displacement and refuge marked their lives?
The publication Yo me veo hopes to show, in some way, these not always manifest faces of the lives of young people in refugee situations living in Ecuador. To show, from their own perspective, lines that in one way or another help us to understand the challenges facing this segment of the population and their aspirations. How they see their world and how they hope to guide their own paths to solutions for the future.