"Thanks to Inclusive Cities, we want to be the big recyclers in Cúcuta".

Mónica* is clear about her medium-term future. Together with six colleagues from an association of recyclers, they plan to create a company that will lead the recycling process in Cúcuta and provide employment for their Venezuelan compatriots. For her, the association has been the opportunity to provide her family with a daily sustenance. 

Born in Venezuela, Monica and her husband decided to leave their country. After doing the math, drawing up a travel plan and selling their household appliances and belongings, they set out for Colombia more than two years ago. The first to leave home was Leonardo*, her husband, who arrived in Santander a month earlier to "try his luck and test the waters".  "He had been here for a month and I didn't wait any longer. I came quickly. It took me four days to get here, four days walking with my children," she recalls.

For the family, the first few months were difficult. With difficulty in obtaining a job, at that time it was a challenge to provide for their four children. In Venezuela, Monica and her husband worked at their fast food stand, a trade they had become very skilled at and had learned to love. However, in their new home, they struggled to unlearn in order to make room for a new skill: recycling. 

For Mónica the doors were opening due to her participation in different initiatives for refugees, migrants and Colombian returnees in Medellín. "There I have learned many things, for example, in the first workshops they gave us I learned everything about administration and how to lead a business, which was something I did not know. That helped me a lot to create the Association, and with the support of the people from the workshops we have been able to give it shape. They have also taught us everything that has to do with marketing, we had that course, and not long ago we also finished the biosafety course. These are things we have learned that we didn't know," says Mónica.

The initiative to which Monica refers is Inclusive Cities, Communities in Solidarity; a project supported by the European Union in Colombia and implemented by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN-Habitat and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). This partnership seeks to reduce the vulnerabilities of refugees and migrants and increase the resilience of host communities in six countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Colombia, it is implemented in Cúcuta, Villa del Rosario, Bucaramanga and Barranquilla, with the objective of promoting integration among the migrant and refugee population and host communities with a focus on preventing xenophobia and socioeconomic integration. In Santander and Norte del Santander, the intervention is being carried out between IOM and Ayuda en Acción as implementing partner.  

Like Monica, 62 enterprises participating in 'Inclusive Cities, Solidarity Communities' will benefit from the strengthening of their productive units, through training and education processes, which will provide them with the tools to achieve long-term sustainability.

"Five years from now... I think I can stop being a collector and become a direct buyer. That is to say, to have my own recycler later on, with my group, with my association, to be able to give employment to others. That is my idea, my goal. To be the big recyclers in Cúcuta," says Monica as she smiles at her husband.

Inclusive Cities, Solidarity Communities' expects to benefit 1,500 people through three main areas of project intervention: strengthening entrepreneurial initiatives; social cohesion and conflict prevention; and strengthening local capacities to care for and guarantee the rights of refugees, migrants and returnees. 

*This story is true, however, some names and places have been changed to protect the identity of the protagonists.