Colombia: Venezuelan women's struggle for healthcare
In this episode of our Everyday Emergency podcast, we hear about the lived experience of Venezuelan women bearing the brunt of their country's healthcare crisis and the difficulties they continue to face in Colombia.
An estimated four million Venezuelans have left their country since the collapse of its political and economic systems, and at least 1.4 million have come to neighbouring Colombia. They are coming from a country where, over the last few years, most people had no access to medicines and essential health services were entirely out of reach.
Now in Colombia, they often face the same problem. Legally entitled to receive emergency medical care from the Colombian health system, those services are limited to vaccinations, immediate lifesaving treatment, and deliveries — and many migrants report being turned away from receiving these.
MSF producer Mandy White reports from our clinics in the La Guajira region of Colombia.
MSF in Colombia
In 2016, the Colombian government and FARC rebel group signed a historic peace deal, ending the country’s more than 50-years-long civil war. However, there are still frequent outbreaks of violence in some areas of the country.
Thousands of civilians are forcibly confined or displaced as armed groups and criminal organisations clash over territory, and many community leaders have been assassinated.
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) first worked in Colombia in 1985.
Colombia saw a resurgence of violence in 2019, as armed groups fought over disputed territories. We helped Colombians who were forcibly displaced and confined, and supported Venezuelan migrants.