Caritas saving lives on Brazil-Venezuela border

Catholic charity working with other religious groups to help refugees find shelter, food, and jobs

Christian groups in Brazil are providing a lifeline to Venezuelan refugees on the shared border as thousands are still fleeing a country that has failed them politically and economically.

Up to 400 people a day are finding ways to cross the border, which was closed on Feb. 22, to apply for asylum or residency at the government’s Operation Welcome Center, which offers help with food, housing and travel.

Most see Brazil as a welcome refuge from the rampant hyperinflation and bloody street protests — as well as a failed attempt at an alleged coup last week — against President Nicolas Maduro.

But the reality on the ground is that food and supplies are sorely lacking, which has prompted groups like Caritas, the Church’s charity arm, and the Sisters of San Jose de Chambery to step in.

Caritas is providing emergency housing assistance to Venezuelans in Boa Vista, in Brazil’s northernmost state of Roraima, as well as helping them find jobs online, and start their own small businesses, Catholic News Service (CNS) reports.

This is part of the “Roads of Solidarity” program it is managing with the support of Scalabrinian sisters, Jesuits, and other diocesan groups.

“People say that at least here (in Brazil) they can get food and medicine, and their kids can go to school,” said Ana Maria da Silva of the Sisters of San Jose de Chambery. She carries out missionary work and has been helping refugees in the border town of Pacaraima.

Sister Ines Arciniegas, a Consolata Missionary Sister from Colombia, cited a dire need for medicine as government services were overwhelmed.

However, church workers remain wary as Operation Welcome has served as a vehicle for opposition leader Jair Bolsonaro, who also claims the presidency, to build up a military presence along the border.

In the wake of the botched coup, Bolsonaro is reportedly considering asking the U.S. to launch a military invasion — a prospect regional Jesuits oppose.

“In an armed intervention, it is poor people who pay the price,” Father Agnaldo Pereira de Oliveira, national director of the Jesuit Migration and Refugee Service in Brazil, told CNS.

He said 3.5 million Venezuelans have already left their country, with the number tipped to jump another 50 percent by year’s end.

La Croix

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