In this edition of the Voices from the Shelters Series, we will accompany the story of José Chinel, 42, a Warao Indigenous Venezuelan, student of Nursing, married and father of 6 children.
His choice of career as a Nurse Technician was the consequence of a dramatic personal situation, allied with his interest in working in the basic health care of his Warao ethnicity, a task he had already been actively carrying out in the Health Council of the Shelter.
After accompanying one of his daughters, hospitalized for seven months to treat tuberculosis at the Children’s Hospital, José Chinel did not have any doubts about what professional path to follow.
The enrolment of the Warao Indigenous student at the Technical Course of Nursing of the Technical and Specialized Education Center of the State of Roraima (CETERR), which lasts for 24 months, shows the importance that professional training has to open paths for Venezuelan migrants and refugees, enabling their insertion in the job market and the possibility for them to re-establish their lives in Brazil.
Fernando Fileno, the anthropologist that accompanies the situation of the Venezuelan Indigenous people in the shelters under the management of the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Federation (FFHI), highlights in his article about José Chinel that “we know that the migratory flow is motivated by an interest in earning an income, which will be destined both for local use and to be sent to their relatives who reside in Venezuela. This is why investment in livelihood projects that may include professional training and the insertion into the job market is fundamental, as those projects bring lasting solutions that are both local and superlocal.”
