MIGRANT VOICES

In various corners of the world, migrants and displaced persons are being stripped of their identities as they become nameless numbers in the news, burdensome bodies on a border, and forgotten faces among a flood of millions seeking refuge worldwide. Migrant Voices is a collection of photos, interviews, and stories that seeks to humanize the narrative of global migration - one voice at a time.

A family poses for a portrait as they relax on the jetty in Santa Marta, Colombia in 2019. Behind them, police check the documents of other migrants. Within the past four years, Colombia has welcomed the thousands of displaced persons seeking refuge from the economic collapse, corruption, and violence in Venezuela. Now, as the number of migrants continues to swell beyond three million, entry requirements have stiffened and raids have surged in an attempt to manage the incomprehensible influx of Venezuelan arrivals.

Una familia posa para un retrato mientras se relajan en el embarcadero en Santa Marta, Colombia. Detrás de ellos, la policía revisa los documentos de otros migrantes. En los últimos cuatro años, Colombia ha acogido a miles de personas desplazadas que buscan refugio del colapso económico, la corrupción y la violencia en Venezuela. Ahora, a medida que el número de migrantes continúa aumentando más de tres millones, los requisitos de ingreso se han endurecido y las redadas han aumentado en un intento por manejar la incomprensible afluencia de llegadas de venezolanos.

Click on the images below to read the stories of other migrants from our instagram feed.

Haga clic en las imágenes a continuación para leer las historias de otros migrantes de nuestro feed de instagram.

 

View fullsize Vero is brave in so many ways. She left a good career in Venezuela to explore new opportunities, she overcame the pressure to succeed in a foreign country, and she started her own podcast series @modernimmigrant to amplify immigrant voices. Her journ
View fullsize Vero shares two keepsakes from Venezuela (Español en comentarios). The first, a hand painted angel, was given by her mother right before Vero left Venezuela. The colors are reminiscent of the warmth and positive energy she cherishes in her culture,
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View fullsize Roberto Mictil is a father, friend, teacher, and plastic artist with a resume as considerable as the experiences and adventures he tells me about. More recently, he is a Venezuelan migrant living in Colombia. Despite years of education, decades of te
View fullsize This month’s book club read with @modernimmigrant 📚Let’s continue to listen to others as they share their personal stories with migration ✌️ • El libro de mes con el club de lectura con @modernimmigrant 📚 Sigamos escuchando a los d
View fullsize As quarantine restrictions begin to loosen in Santa Marta and informal workers start to return to the streets, Migrant Voices has decided to transition from food packages to more sustainable ways of helping our families support themselves. Last week,
View fullsize Thanks to all of your donations, Migrant Voices has been able to aid local Venezuelan families during the three month lockdown in Santa Marta. On Friday, we delivered our 200th food package. That means that 200 times, a mother or father returned home
View fullsize Yesterday we completed our 12th round of food deliveries - 174 food packages in total! We were able to help out @ofrancox and @mictilgallery - two talented artists from Venezuela that have been struggling to support themselves since the quarantine wa
View fullsize BLACK LIVES MATTER
View fullsize Today we gave out our 150th mercado! Thank you to all of the generous people that have helped make this possible ❤️ #Migrantvoices
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View fullsize Ysabel and her daughter, Katheryn, came to Colombia eight months ago due to the collapsing healthcare system in Venezuela. Katheryn, who suffers from seizures and cognitive developmental disabilities, was unable to obtain her medication. “In th
View fullsize We just completed our FOURTH delivery of food to families in need. Thank you so much to all that have supported this project. You are amazing! To donate, please get in contact with us or visit the link in our bio ❤️❤️❤️ • Acabamos de terminar nu
View fullsize We were able to help ten families this week, providing enough food and other essentials for approximately ten days. Seven families were able to pick up their packages at a meeting point, while three packages were delivered to those that could not lea
View fullsize Thanks to your donations, we were able to complete a second round of care packages to keep these families safe for another week. We were able to purchase and organize the packages at a supermarket and hand them out outside. The last photo is a thank
View fullsize A HUGE thank you to everyone that donated to Migrant Voices. We were able to provide care packages for six of the families that we have interviewed for this project, as well as rent assistance and medicine to a few. We will continue to support these
View fullsize Genesis, 19, is comforted by her mother, Gladis, 50. Gladis was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2016, but has not been able to seek proper treatment due to the economic crisis and collapsing healthcare system in Venezuela. Her last hope was here in
View fullsize Crisel, 3, embraces her doll in the small courtyard that her family shares with other Venezuelan families. “Baby Jesus gave it to me,” she says with a big smile. Her parents, Genesis and Samuel, were able to afford this simple comfort for
View fullsize Crisel takes a nap in her mother Genesis’ lap outside of an ice cream shop in Santa Marta, Colombia. A year ago, Genesis and her husband fled the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela to secure a better future for their daughter. According to an OA