A 40-year conflict in Colombia is displacing millions of families. World Vision is helping these families find safer places to live, education, and adequate nutrition.

By Heidi Isaza and Rachael Boyer, World Vision U.S.

Opposing armed forces in Colombia have been fighting for more than 40 years, causing Colombia to have the second-highest number of internally displaced people in the world.

According to the United Nations, 3-4 million Colombians are displaced. That’s more than Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Somalia. Only Sudan has more displaced people.

Since most of the danger from the armed conflict is in the rural areas, agricultural families are seeking refuge in the cities and often arrive with nothing. Claudia Sanchez works for World Vision in Colombia and looks out for the well-being of these displaced families and children.

‘There were no laws’

The Puentes’ are just one of the many Colombian families World Vision has helped. Abel Puentes, 30, and his wife Andrea, 27, have four children: Myller, Nielson, Linel, and Wilson.

Three years ago, the Puentes’ lived in a rural town in Colombia. “There were no laws,” remembers Abel. The armed group in their area charged a fee to allow families to live in relative peace. For their fee, the Puentes’ had to give part of their harvests and livestock to feed the troops, which made it difficult for Abel to feed his own children.

If paying the fee was all that was required, Abel might have considered staying on his land. But when they began threatening his wife and forcibly recruiting children to their army, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Starting from scratch

The family stayed as long as they dared, until one day they were told to be gone by morning. The Puentes’ had to leave behind their pueblo, their land, their livestock, and their extended family. They fled with the clothes on their backs, without any money for transportation or food.

It was a 15-day journey for them to get to the city. Once they arrived, they had no place to stay, and no means of income.

Abel was lacking city job skills since he didn’t get to finish primary school, and had spent his life farming and raising cattle. They spent the first month and a half on the streets, begging. “The children were very malnourished,” remembers Andrea.

Eventually, Abel found a temporary job, which paid enough for them to rent a small room in the slums. He walked three hours each way to earn this meager sum of money.

An answer to prayer

Although the family was off the streets, things were far from improved. “We didn’t have anything to eat,” says Andrea. “In our room, the water came in when it rained, and because we had the mattresses on the ground, they got wet.”

“During the day I would put them out in the sun to see if they would dry,” says Andrea. “If they didn’t dry, we would have to put the kids to bed on the wet mattresses.”

When it felt like life could not get any worse and there was no hope, Andrea turned to God. “One day, I was sad and frustrated and I said, ‘God, please put someone in my path that could help us,’” she remembers. That was the day she met Claudia Sanchez.

Just in time

Although Andrea didn’t get to finish primary school either, she could read just enough to understand Claudia’s vest. “It said World Vision,” remembers Andrea. “I had heard of World Vision and that they help a lot of people.” When Andrea told Claudia about their living conditions, “[Claudia] told me, ‘don’t worry, we are going to help you.’”

Immediately, Claudia went to see where the Puentes’ lived and was shocked by what she saw. “They were living in very dangerous conditions where residual waters came into the house,” says Claudia. “The children were very sick. That day they only had a bag of lentils that someone had given them to eat. They didn’t have anything else.”

Not only did Claudia and World Vision provide the children with food to help them begin recovering from their severe malnutrition, but they also helped the Puentes family find a safer, drier place to live, and enrolled the older children in school, and the younger children in a preschool program.

Claudia helped Myller enroll in World Vision’s sponsorship program, and he now has a sponsor in the United States.

“I am so thankful for World Vision,” says Andrea with a smile. “It has been a great blessing for us.”

World Vision helps hundreds of families like the Puentes’ in many cities across Colombia, and supports peace-building efforts.