We Are the Girls

There are more than 7 million people worldwide who have migrated from Venezuela — creating the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history. Violence, gangs and extreme poverty have driven close to 25% of the population to flee, often to neighboring countries like Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador.

Wenddy, a young Venezuelan woman, found refuge in Ecuador after making the difficult decision to leave her country to seek safety and opportunities for her future. With Plan’s support, she’s now found a better life.

“Migration: a word that runs through my life,” Wenddy says. “I am from Caracas, Venezuela, and in 2017 I migrated to Ecuador. I never imagined that this process would enable me to get to know myself in depth and recognize the hidden potential I have.

“My parents are from Pueblo Nuevo, a rural area of Portoviejo in the Ecuadorian province of Manabí. Twenty-six years ago, when they were 18, they left their homeland to live in Venezuela, where my sisters and I were born. Years later, we returned to Ecuador, although I did not want to come.

“I was a little familiar with the area because we used to come here on holiday every two years. However, when my parents made the decision to return, I felt that everything would be new for me and thousands of thoughts went through my head. I was studying law, I was in my seventh semester and I didn’t want to drop out. I suggested to my parents the possibility of staying in Caracas until I finished my degree.

“That conviction changed when a friend of mine was killed in a protest by a gas bomb. At that moment I said to myself: ‘I’ve come this far. Here the lives of young people are [treated as] worthless, I have to leave.’”

“Life in Venezuela was very hard in 2017,” Wenddy says. “Although my family and I had enough to eat and cover our needs, danger and insecurity stalked us. We lived in a vertical neighborhood — a complex of very tall towers — that had been given to us by the government. However, living there became dangerous. We always heard gunshots and on one occasion we had to walk past dead bodies. My younger sister, who was 6 years old at the time, was traumatized, and when she heard a loud noise, she would hide under the bed.

“When I arrived in Ecuador, I had certain advantages over other Venezuelans, because I have Ecuadorian nationality, a house to live in and my family. But I was not used to living in the countryside. I wanted to continue studying but Pueblo Nuevo is a rural area where there are no city conveniences, no air conditioning, no internet and, of course, no universities. Besides, to continue studying I had to pass the entrance exam, but I knew nothing about the history of Ecuador and I had little memory of mathematics.

“Since I had nothing to do, I took over the household care. I went from having a very active life to staying at home. I used to study English, was part of an orchestra and sometimes worked. In Pueblo Nuevo, I was bothered by the sound of the roosters and the birds because they didn’t let me sleep. It was too hot and I thought: ‘Where did I come to?’ I got sick with pleural effusion and was hospitalized because I had fluid in my lungs. I had hit rock bottom, but strangely enough, everything got better from there.”

“One day at my sister’s school, a teacher asked me to cover her for a few hours so she could go to the doctors,” Wenddy says. “I hesitated to accept because I had always been shy and hated to speak in public, until I told myself that they were just kids, that nothing was going to happen and so I agreed. Little by little, more teachers asked me to help them because they appreciated my work.

“In 2018, I applied for college and on the application I had to choose two careers I wanted to study. The first one was law, but I could not move to the city [to study in person] because my parents could not afford my stay, and my second option was a bachelor’s degree in foreign language teaching. I am about to graduate with my bachelor’s degree and a year ago I started studying law online.

“In the middle of this process, Plan International came into my life and got me out of the depression I was going through. The organization was working on some projects in my community and I joined some of their programs. I was happy because many people had discriminated against us for being from a misunderstood country.”

“[With] Plan International, I met people who accepted me for who I am,” Wenddy says. “I managed to make my first group of friends in the country. I took part in my first journalistic project as part of a network of community reporters, where I learned how to record and edit videos to generate content, speak in front of the cameras, and speak on the radio. I discovered that I have the ability to speak in front of people and to convey [what I want to say] in an assertive way.

“One day, I was invited to a radio station in Portoviejo to speak about what we young people from rural areas were doing, and the journalist who interviewed me was quite fascinated because I performed so well — to the point that he offered me a part-time job at the radio station. After thinking about it, I accepted. Part of my job was to voice and manage the controls.

“I am also a member of a girls’ movement, which has changed my way of thinking by 180 degrees. I began to understand feminism … and that women fight against the inequalities we experience just because we are women.

“At the beginning of 2022, I joined a new project developed by Plan International on education in emergencies. It is a program that works collaboratively with eight countries, and Ecuador is the only one in the Americas. Our work consists of learning about the circumstances of children in Ecuador with respect to unsafe educational environments and proposing solutions to these problems. The project is supported by 22 delegates in the provinces where Plan International works.

“At the end of July, I traveled to Paris to participate in a youth event on education in emergencies organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. At a personal level, it was a huge challenge because, for the first time in my life, I had to speak in English to demonstrate my potential. At a professional level, it was a source of immense pride, because I am preparing to become a teacher. Being able to go to an organization like UNESCO to speak about the things I am most passionate about is a source of pride that I can’t get enough of.”

“Although I still miss my country, I know that migrating to Ecuador was the best thing I could have done,” Wenddy says. “I am no longer Wenddy, the shy girl who was ashamed to even ask how much a pair of shoes cost; now I am an empowered woman who is in tune with her community and works for the rights of children and adolescents in rural areas, because being in a rural area should not be synonymous of inequality and abandonment.

“After five years in Ecuador, I realize that it is a privilege to live in harmony with nature. Now I don’t know if I would go back to live in a big city. I am no longer bothered by birds or roosters crowing. I value tranquility, watching the stars and coming home and disconnecting from the chaos of the world.”