Grupo de Solidaridad: Meet Adriana

Grupo de Solidaridad is the Church Council's primary means of immigration organizing, rooted in the lived experiences of people impacted by the immigration system. Over the last year, Grupo has learned the Church Council organizing methodologies and has identified three priorities for their work: education, resource mobilization, and convivencia.

We are excited to introduce our network to Grupo members who are leading our work. Today we share Adriana's story, one of our panelists from our recent forum on forced migration:

I am Adriana, and I left Venezuela 6 years ago because of the political and economic situation in our country that my family and I lived through and that thousands of Venezuelans are still going through. I was part of the leftist party and a person very committed to changes in society; however, from 2013 when Nicolas Maduro took power, many things changed and both the projects and the help to the vulnerable population was no longer so transparent.

I worked that year on a project of prefabricated houses that was supposed to be concluded in 9 months, but it took 2 years and the houses were never finished being built. Questioning that process and asking for clarification on the handling of the financial resources was the reason for leaders of the party in power and State authorities to initiate a series of actions against me and my family.

They took away my and my husband's jobs. They took away our access to food to the point that my husband and my one year old daughter suffered from malnutrition. My husband died in May 2013 from a serious stomach ailment, derived from the problems we faced as a family.

As a mother of 3 children I had to leave my country to seek support, first to Colombia, but because of political persecution I had to flee again to the United States. I am currently look forward to better conditions for me and my family in this society.

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Soy Adriana y salí de Venezuela hace 6 años por la situación política y económica que vivimos mi familia y yo en nuestro país y que aún atraviesan miles de venezolanos. Yo formaba parte del partido de izquierda y una persona muy comprometida con los cambios en la sociedad; sin embargo, a partir del 2013 cuando Nicolás Maduro tomó el poder, muchas cosas cambiaron y ya no era tan transparente tanto los proyectos como la ayuda a la población vulnerable.

Trabajé ese año en un proyecto de casas prefabricadas que se suponía debía concluir en 9 meses, pero tardó 2 años y las casas nunca se terminaron de construir. Cuestionar ese proceso y pedir aclaración sobre el manejo de los recursos financieros fue el motivo para que dirigentes del partido en el poder y autoridades del Estado iniciaran una serie de acciones en contra mía y de mi familia.

Nos quitaron el trabajo a mí y a mi esposo. Nos quitaron el acceso a la alimentación al punto de que mi esposo y mi hija de un año sufrieron de desnutrición. Mi esposo falleció en mayo de 2013 por una dolencia estomacal grave, derivado de los problemas que afrontábamos como familia.

Como madre de 3 hijos tuve que salir de mi país para buscar apoyo, primero a Colombia, pero debido a la persecución política tuve que huir nuevamente a los Estados Unidos. Actualmente espero mejores condiciones para mí y mi familia en esta sociedad.