La Rolita: the corner of the Manizales Gallery received a new house - Other Cities - Colombia

Paris, a three-month-old cat, remains clinging to Santiago Buitrago’s neck, making sure that his master will not leave him. The 16-year-old boy hastily finishes packing his belongings with his mother, Jenny Alexandra Valderrama, making sure that they do not leave anything in what was his home. 2.5 meters wide by 6 meters deep. To say that a container has more space than that house built nine years ago on a mat on a cement sheet and roofed with zinc sheets.

“Chuchito, I can’t keep it,” says Jenny, referring to the image of Jesus crucified. She picks it up and dusts it off with the blouse she’s wearing, then she ‘sings’ him a kiss. A mattress, a bed, a washing machine and a television is the mess that comes out of an alley in the Corinto village of Manizales. To get to what Jenny and Santiago call home, but which a foreman classifies as a ramada, you must go through a labyrinth.

(Enter the special: United Colombia, where differences can live’)

The reason for the fret is an act of solidarity, of humanity, in the midst of the pandemic. A miracle, say some neighbors, a stroke of luck assure others. For Alexánder Villada, Santiago’s best friend, “it’s a chimba” (term to refer to something extremely good).

Santiago Buitrago; Ana María Echeverri Jaramillo, director of the Fundación Obras Sociales Betania, and La Rolita, entering the apartment in San Sebastián.

Photo:

Freddy Arango | HOMELAND

Jenny Alexandra was brought out of anonymity by LA PATRIA’s photo editor, Freddy Arango. At the beginning of March, when he was passing by the Manizales Gallery in the middle of a downpour, he saw this woman unload from a truck what was left of a washing machine turned into scrap metal. He asked his co-workers about her, all men: “She is the brat to disarm them. She is the only woman who is measured to put a washing machine or refrigerator on top, she is measured to whatever”.

With this information, he proposed in the council that the Newsroom of this newspaper carries out daily and in which each journalist exposes the issues they want to address, to narrate the story of ‘Rolita’, as Jenny Alexandra is known in the junkyard where she works. . The theme was to recount the job of this character, regarding Women’s Day.

After receiving approval, he made the graphic report applying that journalism is not a circus to be exhibited, but an instrument to think, to create, to help man in his eternal fight for a more dignified and less unjust life, according to Argentine journalist Tomás Eloy Martínez.

from heart

The house where ‘Rolita’ and her son lived testified to poverty: mat walls and a roof with zinc sheets through which branches from the neighboring hillside grew.

Photo:

Freddy Arango | HOMELAND

Click, click, click, click, Freddy shuttered the camera, while Rolita shouldered a stove, then a refrigerator, then a window grille; how she throws her life on her shoulder and told him how he was capable of carrying up to 60 kilos. On March 7, La Rolita was the cover of the 35,334 edition of LA PATRIA. She still has the newspaper, but what she did not expect was that a reader and businessman from the city would extend his hand or better his heart, and Through the social networks of this communication medium, he will request the contact of Jenny Alexandra to announce that he wanted to fix up their house.

(Enter the special: United Colombia, where differences can coexist’)

In the report she narrated that when it rained she got up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning to move her goods and prevent them from getting wet, and that her greatest dream was to be able to fix the house. The businessman, who is a benefactor of Obras Sociales Betania, called sister Ana María Echeverri Jaramillo, director of that Foundation and Caldense of the year 2020, whom he asked if there were available apartments that the same entity builds, for him to buy one and donate it to him. to the Rolita.

Click, click…

The ‘Rolita’ this time loaded her belongings; according to her, it was the weight of happiness.

Photo:

Freddy Arango | HOMELAND

Together with his son Santiago and his pet Paris on his neck, last Monday they packed their corotos in a van from Betania and moved to San Sebastián, where with tears, emotion and hugs, according to her, she thanked that blessing. “My heart is going to come out. I’m going to have to scream, because if I’m not going to burst with happiness, “she expressed the ‘Rolita’ while she dried her tears and hugged sister Ana María, like a child hugs her mother.

(Enter the special: United Colombia, where differences can coexist’)

Freddy again took out the camera. Click, click, click, click, it closed, portraying the scene of solidarity, while the social worker of Betania, Lorena Duque, broke a cake to celebrate how the weight of life was lightened for the ‘Rolita’, thanks to that businessman who prefers to keep his name secret, but leaves a life lesson.

GEOVANNY MARTINEZ
The Homeland – Manizales
United Colombia

US Received Overwhelming Number of Humanitarian Parole Requests from Afghans

After nearly 20 years of war, the U.S. and its allies left Afghanistan last August, helping to evacuate more than 130,000 Afghans in the chaotic last weeks in Kabul. Many of those Afghans hoped for a life in the U.S.

The U.S. offers few primary avenues for Afghans seeking entry. One is a decade-old special immigrant visa program for military interpreters and others who worked on government-funded contracts. Another is a refugee admission program run by the State Department in conjunction with other agencies. A third path is humanitarian parole.

Humanitarian parole is special permission given to those hoping to enter the United States under emergency circumstances. Though it does not automatically lead to permanent residency, “parolees” can apply for legal status—either through the asylum process or other forms of sponsorship, if available—once they’re in the U.S.

The Biden administration received more than 40,000 requests for humanitarian parole for Afghan nationals outside the U.S. So far 160 cases have been conditionally approved, per data sent to VOA by U.S. immigration officials.

An additional 930 cases have been denied, leaving thousands of Afghans who are seeking temporary entry into the U.S. stuck in Afghanistan and other countries.

Stringent criteria

Immigration attorney Mahsa Khanbabai, an elected director of the board of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and co-chair of AILA’s Afghan task force, said part of the problem is how the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) decides to whom they are going to give humanitarian parole.

“They have extremely stringent criteria, which is immensely problematic and upsetting for a lot of people because we expected the government to use … its broad discretion to grant parole,” Khanbabai told VOA. “… There’s an emergency situation here. There’s some humanitarian considerations. Let’s help these people out.”

FILE – A woman holds high a sign that reads “#SaveOurAllies” at a rally calling for the evacuation of Afghan allies, July 1, 2021.

For many at-risk Afghan civilians with no direct ties to the U.S. military or government, humanitarian parole is the only option to reach safety in the United States and reunite with family members.

“A great example is women judges and prosecutors,” Khanbabai said. “They were actually trained by U.S. lawyers … but they never worked for the U.S. government. They worked for the Afghan government. They don’t qualify for [a special immigrant visa]. … So humanitarian parole is really their next best option, and that’s one reason why we advocate so hard for [it].”

A spokesperson for USCIS told VOA that in a typical year, the agency receives fewer than 2,000 requests for humanitarian parole from all nationalities. Of those requests, about 500 to 700 are approved. There are numerous reasons for rejection, but most often it’s because the applicant could not prove they were in an emergency situation.

Additionally, the spokesperson said, the U.S. government has increased the number of officers working on parole cases to assist with the surge in requests and improve processing times.

But the official said humanitarian parole is not intended to replace the refugee processing channels, such as the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), which is the typical pathway for individuals outside of the United States who have fled their country of origin and are seeking protection.

“USCIS reviews the specific facts of each case to determine if there is a distinct, well-documented reason to approve humanitarian parole for an individual,” the spokesperson said.

FILE – An Afghan refugee stands outside temporary housing at the Fort McCoy U.S. Army base in Fort McCoy, Wis., Sept. 30, 2021.

They do, however, recognize the U.S. refugee program is not always an option.

“In some limited circumstances, protection needs are so urgent that obtaining protection via the USRAP is not a realistic option. This, along with other, multiple factors are taken into consideration when USCIS assesses whether urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit parole warrants a favorable exercise of discretion,” USCIS spokesperson said.

Among the criteria to be considered for parole, an applicant is usually an immediate family member of a U.S. citizen or a U.S. lawful permanent resident. Or was a formally employed staff member in the U.S. Embassy in Kabul or an immediate family member of a locally employed staff member.

It also requires an application fee of $575.

VOA spoke with Noori, a former diversity visa winner living in a camp in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, who said he is now trying to get a visa to go to Germany or Canada with his family. For now, he has no hope they will live in the U.S. because they cannot afford the fee.

“We have no money for humanitarian parole,” he wrote in a text message. Noori, like many Afghans, uses only one name.

‘Imminent severe harm’

In November, USCIS added to the list of criteria for Afghan applicants and hosted a webinar to explain to attorneys that humanitarian parole is normally given only if the applicant shows evidence of “imminent severe harm.”

But, as Khanbabai said, it is difficult for the applicants to meet the “imminent severe harm” bar.

“They’re saying that, ‘You haven’t proven to us that there’s individualized threat or harm.’ So, [the U.S. government] essentially made the standard almost more difficult than an asylum case. … Basically ‘Where’s your letter from the Taliban saying that they want you to report to their offices because of the XYZ activities you engaged in,'” she said.

In January, 15 senators wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas expressing concern over the reported high denial rates for Afghans seeking humanitarian parole into the United States.

“While we have always maintained that proper vetting is an essential part of the humanitarian parole process, we are greatly concerned that the Administration is holding Afghan nationals seeking humanitarian parole to an unreasonably high standard, creating barriers to safe haven in the United States,” the senators, all Democrats, wrote.