Greatest Number of Internal Refugees

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Unfortunately, one of the reasons that many of us have the opportunity to adopt Colombian children is because of the great internal strife that exists in Colombia. As a translator, I have had the opportunity to translate (from Spanish into English) many adoption referral documents, including abandonment decrees and child data sheets. It saddens me to hear the many stories of how the children came to be in the care of ICBF. Often, the stories are related to poverty and problems associated with the War. Some of the children were born into displaced families that, because of their circumstances, are unable to care for their child(ren).


Colombia has the largest number of internally displaced persons (IDP) in the world -- approximately 3,000,000. This is greater than the 2.8 million in Iraq (the country with the second highest number of displaced persons). A Colombian photographer has some great pictures of displaced refugees in Bogota. Beautiful!!

I also recently read a Untied Nations committee report that discusses the problem.

You can read the UNHCR report in English:


Or the article in El Tiempo in Spanish:

http://www.eltiempo.com/mundo/euycanada/colombia-con-el-mayor-numero-de-desplazados-en-el-mundo_5457690-1

Comments

Rebecca said…
My church's sister church in Bucaramanga feeds hundreds of displaced children every day. It is a sad reality. Thanks for sharing it.
July 12, 2009 at 9:35 PM
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