ECUADOR-WORLD FOOD PROGRAM World Food Programme looks to feed Colombian refugees escaping conflict in Colombia

Record ID: 645102

  • Title: ECUADOR-WORLD FOOD PROGRAM World Food Programme looks to feed Colombian refugees escaping conflict in Colombia
  • Date: 14th November 2014
  • Summary: WFP COMPUTER SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 29th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ecuador
  • Country: Ecuador
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA17MJVTF50QVFAI8TE4KBUVCZX
  • Story Text: An estimated 1,000 refugees cross into Ecuador from Colombia every month even as the Colombian government negotiates with leftist FARC rebels to end 50 years of internal conflict.
    Most of the Colombians fleeing the violence arrive on the Ecuadorian side of the San Miguel River with little more than the clothes on their backs.
    They are fleeing Latin America's longest running war which has killed some 200,000 people since 1964.
    The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the government of center-right President Juan Manuel Santos have held peace talks in Cuba for the past two years, but a peace deal has thus far not been solidified.
    In the interim, the FARC has ceased once-regular kidnappings for ransom, but it has also vowed to continue attacking government troops even as peace talks continue unless its demand for a bilateral ceasefire is met, something the government has ruled out.
    The violence continues to displace thousands of Colombians living near the conflict zone on the Ecuadorian border sending them streaming over the boundary without any money, food or a roof over their heads.
    To help alleviate the problem, the United Nations' World Food Programme, or WFP, is educating displaced Colombians on nutrition and how to better provide for their families in their new home.
    Refugees are also given an electronic debit card they can use to purchase food staples including fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, grains and even beef and chicken.
    "These electronic cards, with these they can go to a store and buy fruit and vegetables which are fresh and they get a discount to buy them. And we also have this other coupon. With this coupon they can buy dried beans, grains, beef, chicken for their families," a WFP representative, Christian Guaman said.
    Carmenza Valenzuela, a Colombian refugee living near the border, shops at local markets using the card and says the programme has been a godsend for her and her family.
    She said her new community has been accepting of her when she uses the card to buy groceries to feed her five children.
    "It was hard, but nothing is easy anywhere, right? You have to suffer in order to grow. Thank God. People sometimes look at you a little strangely, but it has been the complete opposite for me. I don't know if it's because I have so many kids or what. And yes, I'd like to give them a better life, to have a stable job. Sometimes we don't have enough (money) to eat. But thanks be to God, the food he is giving us, thank God we have not gone to bed without eating," Valenzuela said.
    Refugees are able to use the card to buy healthy foods during the first six months they seek refuge in Ecuador.
    The WFP said the programme benefited 63,447 people in 2013 and it aims to reach 184,000 in 2015 at a cost of almost $20 million dollars.
    But Kyungnan Park, a WFP representative in Ecuador said the programme is about more than just filling hungry bellies.
    "We provide for them, not just enough food, but they also get good nutrition here. Which means not eating so many carbohydrates that don't have any nutritional value. But yes, to eating a lot of vegetable protein, like beans, legumes, and part of this is that they get the dignity of going to a store to buy their own things that they need," Park said.
    Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa called for a peaceful end to the Colombian conflict while also saying his country would continue to accept refugees from the neighboring country as they look to escape the violence.
    "We have tens of thousands of refugees. More than 90 percent of the refugees in Ecuador are Colombian and we welcome them with open arms, obviously. But well, it is a result of the conflict in Colombia. As a matter of fact, every once and a while we get congratulated by the UNHCR, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ecuador is listed as one of the Latin American countries with the most refugees, if not the most, and as one of the countries in the world that best treats its refugees. Because in other places they (refugees) are in concentration camps, nothing more. Here they are completely integrated into daily life. But nonetheless, Ecuador is denounced every now and then in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. These are big contradictions. But apart from all of this is our complete support for the peace process (in Colombia), more than anything for Colombia. This conflict must end and Colombia has our full support," Correa said.
    The border region between the two countries is considered a conflict zone and the Ecuadorean government said it is currently investing $100 million dollars to protect it.
    Colombia and the FARC have reached agreements on cooperation on eradicating the illicit drug trade, agricultural reform, and the FARC's possible future in politics.
    The two sides are now working toward agreements on reparations for war victims and the mechanics of ending the conflict.
    Any peace deal would then be put before Colombian voters for approval.
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