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On World Refugee Day, Hope Starts with a Meal

on  June 21, 2021

Nothing exemplifies human fragility as mass movement; being uprooted from your home and thrusted into the raw reality of the unknown as one seeks safety and security. This World Refugee Day, more than 26 million refugees and 41 million internally displaced persons live in this state of unknown and uncertainty, a shocking reality brought upon by climate change, war, conflict or a combination of these factors.Unlike other refugee crises, the Western Hemisphere’s largest mass movement of people is not caused by conflict or war. Since 2013 Venezuela has been in the midst of a severe political and economic crisis resulting in high unemployment and challenges accessing food and basic necessities, with nearly 90 percent of the country’s population living below the poverty line. This reality translates into more than 5.6 million Venezuelans leaving their homes or about 1 in 7 Venezuelans, with more than 4.6 million seeking refuge mainly in Colombia and across the region in countries such as Chile, Ecuador or Peru.By all accounts, Colombia has borne the brunt of the exodus. It’s estimated that about 1.8 million Venezuelans live in Colombia with thousands more continuing to cross the border between the two nations every day. In response to the crisis, the Rotary e-Club of Houston and Rise Against Hunger formed a partnership, and together with locally led organizations, initiated the Hope for Venezuelan Refugees project.The goal of the project is to alleviate the short-term hunger of Venezuelan refugees, migrants and walkers (caminantes) that are walking away from the border, forging ahead seeking safety and a better life for themselves and their families. The project serves the thousands of caminantes that have made the decision to walk the approximate 560 kilometers (348 miles) from the border city of Cúcuta to the Colombian capital city of Bogotá, or continue their journey to the other countries of the region.Since its inception in 2019, the project has made its priority to ensure that food distribution centers or volunteer-led shelters on the Cúcuta-Pamplona-Bogotá humanitarian route have the necessary resources to give a hot meal to any refugee seeking aid on their journey. Throughout the lifecycle of the project, more than 578,000 Venezuelans had a guaranteed meal as they reached the locations sponsored by Rise Against Hunger.Together with the Rotary e-Club of Houston, the Rotary Club of Cúcuta 1, and the volunteer-led shelters, we’ve distributed more than 647,000 Rise Against Hunger meals along with nearly 93,000 lbs. of locally procured food. When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in Colombia, we expanded our response to include personal protection equipment (PPE) for the shelter staff, portable handwashing stations to be used by the Venezuelan refugees, face masks for distribution to staff and refugees, and distributed cleaning and disinfectant supplies to all locations to help fight the spread of the virus.The mass movement of Venezuelan ebbs and flows, but the goodwill shown to the Venezuelans on the move remains constant. For many of the people who have fled, being offered a hot meal is an act of compassion and hope of a better future awaiting them. For many Colombians, the opportunity to extend a helping hand is an act of humanity.Crisis response was one of the main drivers for Ray Buchanan, Rise Against Hunger’s founder, to establish the organization in 1998. Providing critical assistance to children and families in times of unimaginable challenges continues to be a top priority, and we are so grateful for this partnership that enables us to reach Venezuelan refugees in moments of great need. On World Refugee Day, donate now to ensure we are able to continue these urgent efforts across the globe in the weeks and months to come.

About the Author

Silvia Roscot is the Emergency Relief Technical Advisor at Rise Against Hunger. In her capacity, she provides leadership to all Rise Against Hunger crisis response, food security and nutrition in emergency operations.

More Posts by Silvia Roscot

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.