An estimated 600 Venezuelans cross the border into northern Brazil’s Roraima state every day. Having fled the economic and political turmoil in their own country, most of them have left everything behind for stability and safety in a new country where they must live in shelters or on the street with their families.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been providing mental health services to adults and children in Roraima for the last year. Our strategy of helping young people cope with the challenges of their new situation has three pillars, says Anderson Beltrame, an MSF psychologist: identity, family and self-esteem; inclusion and belonging in a new culture; and protection and prevention against abuse.
