Arrival: Sunday, March 5, 2023
Departure: Saturday, March 11, 2023
Since 2014, economic collapse, violence, and instability have led to hyperinflation and severe food insecurity in Venezuela. Over 94 percent of Venezuelans have been pushed into poverty by the crisis and more than 7 million people—nearly 20 percent of the population—have been driven to leave their homes. Their departure has expedited the collapse of basic and vital social services like health care, further accelerating the exodus. Of those Venezuelans who have left their country, approximately 2.5million are now living in Colombia, 1.3 million have sought refuge in Peru, and more than 513,900 in Ecuador. Life continues to be extremely difficult for Venezuelans even after arriving in neighboring countries. These countries are already facing their own development and COVID19 challenges, making it increasingly difficult for them to support the growing needs of Venezuelan arrivals.
Photo: BBC
The complex relationship between limited economic opportunities and poor access to services pushes people on the move to adopt dangerous survival strategies such as food rationing, commercial sexual exploitation, and family separation, all of which have a significant negative effect on income generation, psychosocial wellbeing and overall health. The situation has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, as territorial borders were closed to mitigate COVID-19 transmission forcing people to use risky irregular crossing points. Border areas are often controlled by armed groups, which increases the risk of violence and trafficking.
Health
- Sexual and reproductive health services and primary health care, including prenatal and postnatal care services, STIs diagnosis and treatment, family planning services, prevention and response to gender-based, violence, comprehensive abortion care in countries where it´s allowed by the law, blood tests, medicines, vaccines, and COVID-19 prevention
- Training for implementing partners on understanding the underlying causes of malnutrition, recognition and detection of signs and symptoms of malnutrition (acute and chronic) and micronutrient deficiencies, sharing messages around healthy food intake and referral for treatment, and monitoring of malnutrition cases until their recovery is complete
Economic Recovery and Development
- Multipurpose cash assistance
- Training on financial literacy and budget planning
- Employment training, entrepreneurship literacy, and seed capital
Education
- Early childhood education actions for both in-school and out-of-school children, strengthening students’ social-emotional and literacy outcomes and boosting the enrollment of out-of-school children into formal education
- Social-emotional learning content broadcasts through national and community radio networks
Information
Info Pa´lante is a service information platform that provides key information to Venezuelan people on how to access vital services with moderators and humanitarian specialists on call for live dialogue with affected populations.
Protection
- Life-saving response services for women, including immediate clinical care for survivors of sexual assault and case management for women survivors of GBV
- Community mobilization and outreach with prevention workshops, referrals, and training and support for community leaders
- Integrated child protection services, including case management, nutrition and healthcare, and early childhood education through play zones
Note: for portions of this itinerary, the group will be split into two groups to accommodate small spaces and ease client accessibility. This itinerary is subject to changes due to circumstances out of our control.
Day 1: Arrival
- Arrival in Bogotá, Colombia
- Fly to Cúcuta (1 hr)
- Dinner in Cúcuta
Day 2: Cúcuta
- Visit Simon Bolivar International Bridge border crossing point
- Visit Health program providing emergency and sexual and reproductive health services
- Visit community center where IRC and partners provide Child Protection and Women´s Protection and Empowerment case management services
- Lunch
- Meet with local women leader advocates addressing gender-based violence
- Roundtable Dinner with public servants, experts, and partners
- Fly to Medellín (1 hr)
Day 3: Medellín
- Visit Safe Space to see Girl Shine and SAFE protection programs for adolescents
- Lunch
- Visit mobile safe space and health coordination for child protection
- Tour of Intégrate Center, a Colombian state initiative to promote the inclusion and socio-economic integration of the Venezuelan migrant population and Colombian returnees currently living in Colombia
- Fly to Bogotá (1 hr)
- Dinner in Bogotá
Day 4: Bogotá
- Visit to a shelter with IRC’s play space, health, and education programs, as well as Info Pa´lante
- Lunch
- Visit livelihood program with protection services for LGBTQ+ clients
- Meet & greet small-business owner members of IRC´s cash and livelihoods program
- Dinner
Day 5: Quito
- Fly to Bogotá (2 hrs)
- Lunch
- Visit Signpost information resource for migrants hosted by local partner
- Cultural sightseeing at Centro Histórico
- Dinner
Day 6: Quito
- Visit Play and Learning Center for roundtable discussion with caretakers and children
- View early childhood development activity at Center
- Lunch
- Mitad del Mundo (Monument to the Equator) tour
- Dinner
Day 7: Departure
- Farewell and Debrief brunch with VCR and country leadership staff
The physical intensity level for this visit is moderate, expect an average level of walking and standing. Programs require significant travel by land and air.
Your registration fee of $6,500 USD, including a non-refundable deposit of $2,000 USD, reserves your spot and commits you to the trip if it moves forward.
The trip fee covers:
- Three meals per day, accommodations, domestic air travel, road travel, permits, and entrance fees
- Pre-departure support
- A donation to IRC Venezuela Crisis Response
Please note air travel to and from the region are not included in the above fee. A non-refundable deposit of $2,000 USD is required to reserve a spot on this visit.
What is a delegation visit?
Donor Delegation Trips are quarterly pre-planned, fee-based group trips of 5 to 10 participants to destinations prioritized based on funding needs and accessibility.
What is IRC's COVID-19 policy regarding the delegation visit?
IRC puts forth the greatest possible effort to provide a safe and secure operational environment. However, given the nature of our work, participants on the trip may be exposed to healthcare risks, including but not limited to the risk of communicable diseases such as COVID-19. While IRC communicates and expects all operating partners to comply with and encourage appropriate safeguarding measures, the risk of COVID-19 and other potentially infectious diseases still exists. Visitors are required to review the medical guidelines that are provided by IRC prior to participating in the trip and to carefully consider them as they relate to your own medical profile and medical risk tolerance levels.
Can I bring my spouse or child(ren) on the delegation visit?
Because we are limited in the number of trip participants, we prefer to have each participant slot taken by representatives of different giving vehicles in order to maximize the impact of the delegation visit for IRC’s funding needs. After the visit, a trip summary, as well as photos and videos from the visit will be shared with all trip participants, which can then be shared with family, friends, and stakeholders of foundations and partners.
IRC cannot host children on our program visits because our Safety and Security measures are not designed with children in mind, and cannot reasonably be adapted to ensure children’s safety.
What happens after I register?
Immediately after you register, you will receive an email from the IRC's Program Visits team. This will be your primary contact for trip-related questions or concerns in advance of the visit. Before the visit, you will receive many resources to support your preparation process (see the response to the question below “Are there resources to help me prepare for the upcoming visit?”)
I would like to see specific a program during the delegation visit - can you help coordinate that?
Trip registrants should assume that the itinerary shared with their invitation is the itinerary for their visit, for all intents and purposes. The itinerary is shared at this stage to help set expectations around the locations and program types to be seen, and the pace of the visit. Making changes to meet the interests of individual participants will make it impossible to set realistic expectations.
That said, the itinerary distributed with the invitation is tentative and subject to changes at any time due to circumstances out of our control, such as weather, politics or safety. The itinerary is designed by the hosting country and program teams based on accessibility of programs and priority of funding needs, with the objective of showing as many program highlights as possible.
We aim to avoid having idle time, ensure travel routes are safe and destinations are secure, and recommend flight arrival and departure windows to ensure the best experience.
Are there resources to help me prepare for the upcoming visit?
Immediately after you register for your trip, you will be contacted by the Program Visits team. This will be your primary contact and provide any support you will need in advance of the visit, such as visa invitation letters, flight recommendations, and itinerary updates. Several weeks before your trip, you will receive a Pre-departure Briefing containing history of the regional crisis and IRC’s response efforts, IRC emergency contact information, packing list, safety precautions and cultural norms to be aware of, IRC reports and information sheets, as well as additional recommended readings. Several days before your trip, you will participate in a mandatory Safety and Security briefing with the Program Visits team and the local Security officer from the region you will be visiting.
Can you accommodate dietary restrictions?
During the registration process, we ask we ask about any dietary restrictions or preferences. Within reason, most dietary needs can be accommodated during delegation trips and if for some reason this is impossible, the registrant will be notified in advance of the trip. Because IRC operates in many remote locations, there will likely be limited options for meal alternatives at some points during the trip, and therefore it is important to be prepared for the likelihood of meal repetition.
What is your cancellation and refund policy?
How to cancel: If you would like to cancel your participation in the trip, contact Program.Visits@rescue.org. In your email, please indicate whether you would like a partial refund (see below for our refund policy) or prefer to donate your trip fee. In the case of a cancellation, the non-refundable deposit, and any additional donated portion of the trip fee, will be used as a donation to the hosting IRC country office and a thank you letter and tax receipt will be emailed to the cancelled registrant.
Refund policy: In order to register for the trip, a non-refundable deposit is required. This amount is different for each trip and can be found on the trip invitation and registration page. The deposit cannot be refunded for any reason, other than IRC has cancelled or postponed the trip. The remaining balance of the trip fee may be refunded if the registrant cancels more than 45 days prior to the trip arrival date. Within 45 days of the trip, IRC may have already incurred expenses related to domestic air and land travel, accommodations, and other non-cancellable charges, which the registrant may be held responsible for. Any refunds will be applied back to the credit card used to pay for the trip fee.
How many spots are available?
IRC will cancel a donor delegation program visit if the number of registrants does not meet the threshold for covering trip costs and allowing for a minimum donation size to the hosting country program. A visit may also be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances related to safety, or changes in the hosting country program staff capacity.
