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After collecting his luggage from the conveyor belt, Girard left the airport and took a taxi in order to get away from there quickly. The heat was strong, but his face was drenched in sweat not from the weather, but from fear. Of middle age, he seemed to be a good and strong man, although he looked anxious. As the car moved further from the airport, he closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.
Girard Malpica had a nice life; he had a thriving audiovisual production and events business in his native Valencia, Venezuela, and things were going well. But gradually, the country’s economic crisis began to affect his lifestyle his family’s one as well. At first they thought it was a temporary situation and they faced the situation with optimism. But things were getting worse, businesses were closing, food was getting scarce, and the tension was growing day by day. Seeing that clients were disappearing and savings were vanishing, Malpica then began to consider the possibility of emigrating to other territories and began to contact relatives and friends who had left the country in search of a better future. Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Spain and Argentina were some of the countries chosen by those close to him to start a new life.
Deep down, he wanted to stay in his homeland, but the situation became more and more difficult and there came a point where he decided to sell everything and move to another place. The chosen destination was Dominican Republic. In February 2018 he kissed her mother on the forehead, hugged her wife and left behind years of work, experience and life, starting a new adventure.
His arrival on the Caribbean island was not easy. Catalina, a lifelong friend, welcomed him the first few days, warning him that although it would not be easy, he could have a new beginning there. Having twenty dollars in his pocket, Girard needed to earn money immediately and started looking for a job. A week later, a local peasant hired him to collect avocados in the fields. Despite the inclement sun, the torrential rains, and the blisters that appeared on his hands and feet, Girard focused on his goal of reuniting with his mother and wife as soon as possible. Far from feeling sad, he worked with passion and strength. He also picked tomatoes, Became a supermarket cashier and a driver for the San Cristobal fire department, being the latter a job he prouddly remembers. Months after his arrival, Girard managed to make enough money to buy tickets for his wife and his mother and they met sooner than expected. Things were going well. But one day in 2020, the Dominican government announced the arrival of a pandemic and ordered total confinement.
Girard bought a motorcycle and worked as a delivery-man during that period in which COVID-19 attacked humanity. By the end of 2020, he and his wife got the wirus although there were no serious consecuences and surprisingly her mom did not get ill. A God’s blessing, as they would say in Venezuela. Thus, with effort, they survived the pandemic.
Despite the fact that things were going well, uncertainty lived crouching in Girard’s soul, because he feared that, given his alien status, at some point he and his family would be deported. One afternoon, while having a cup of coffee, he saw a TV advertisement inviting Venezuelan nationals to regularize their immigration status; the advertiser was the Venezolanos in San Cristobal Foundation. He called them immediately through social networks and they asked him to come to their headquarters. He skeptically headed there and met more Venezuelan citizens who were in the same situation. Supported by the International Organization for Migration IOM, the foundation was helping migrants from Venezuela to legalize their status and he entered the program. During the process, he wanted to take potos again as a way of living. He began to do spontaneous jobs as a graphic designer, organized a couple of events, designed a fashion magazine, his reputation began to grow and he was called more and more to work on what he was good at.
Girard was back in business, but he wanted to do it officially, without fearing that at some point his business would collapse due to his legal status. Then the foundation suggested to contact the Inclusive Cities, Communities of Solidarity program, where perhaps he could get help in registering his business in the country. Through the proyect he got enrolled in workshops covring several topics such as entrepreneurship, commerce, integration with the host community and some others. The resultscame out almost immediately and today Girard can live calmly.
“If there is something I feel towards Inclusive Cities, is gratitude; they changed my life for good. They not only taught me marketing and accounting, they also gave me tools to join the productive system of this country. You know, it is difficult to be away from home. Inclusive Cities has also given us guidelines to integrate well with local people and that has been very useful. They have helped some migrants’ businesses by donating some inputs such as refrigerators and tools. So far they have given me training, no equipment, but even so I am grateful to Inclusive Cities, because it helped me climb at least ten steps in my goal in this country. I have several friends spread around the world and none of them have been fortunate enough to receive the help that we have received here with this program. There’s no question that Inclusive Cities has been a blessing for us. Once our immigration status is cleared, everything will be complete, ”says Girard as he gets ready to go take pictures at a wedding, his next job challenge.
Out of the 40 people that make up Girard Malpica’s family nucleus, only 10 remain in Venezuela today; the rest, like him, are strangers in foreign lands. He would like something similar to what happened to him with the Inclusive Cities program to happen to his relatives abroad, because it would be a great help to them. And that is the goal of the program, to reduce the vulnerabilities of Venezuelan refugees and migrants and increase the resilience of the host communities, so that stories like Girard’s are more frequent.
