Colombia

Our Work in Colombia

JRS Colombia began its work in 1995, serving IDPs of the country’s civil war. Today, JRS Colombia continues to provide legal, psychosocial, and emergency assistance to forced migrants. JRS contributes to local integration efforts through livelihood and community participation programmes. With many new arrivals from Venezuela, JRS Colombia also provides humanitarian assistance and legal support to Venezuelans.

JRS Colombia works to improve overall wellbeing of refugees and other forcibly displaced people as a result of the Colombian civil war that began in 1964, displacing millions of people throughout the country. To this day, the conflict continues. With more than 8 million registered internally displaced people (IDPs), Colombia has the largest IDP population in the world. In the past year, the country has also seen an influx of migrants fleeing economic and social strife in Venezuela.  

The Peace Agreement signed in Colombia has yet to be a reality for most citizens affected by  more than 50 years of armed conflict. Despite advances in the agreement’s implementation, social leaders are now being targeted by armed actors as a means for social and territorial control. Colombia is also struggling to receive more than 1 million immigrants from Venezuela who are in transit to neighboring countries and settling in Colombia’s precarious conditions. 

See Our Work

Flor Marina, an IDP living Cúcuta, completed a a sewing workshop with the support of JRS. Now she has her own business and she has been able to build her own house. (Maria Teresa Urueña/Jesuit Refugee Service)
Children in Magdalena Medio, Colombia, say no to the recruitment and involvement of children in armed conflict on Red Hand Day. (Jesuit Refugee Service)
An internally displaced man shows cocoa beans produced with the support of JRS in Magdalena Medio, Colombia. (Gorka Ortega/Jesuit Refugee Service)
Cruz is a member of the women association “Nuevo Futuro” that operates in the border between Colombia and Ecuador. The association carries out local advocacy action to defend the rights of women displaced from armed conflicts.

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