A WACC-supported project is using podcasts and curated storytelling to raise awareness of the lived experience of migrant women and girls in Latin America and the need to recognize climate change as a driver of forced migration.

Run by ALC Noticias, an ecumenical communications agency, the project produced the podcast “Camino hacia una vida plena” (Path to a full life) featuring the voices of migrant women and people from civil society groups that support and accompany migrants in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

The seven episodes provide first-person accounts about migrant childhoods, having to leave children behind, challenges in accessing reliable information, the health of those who migrate, and other dimensions of the migrant journey.

According to ALC Noticias, women, girls, and adolescents displaced due to climate change in Latin America face serious risks to their safety, increasing rates of abuse, and lack of access to education and healthcare.

The podcast series includes stories about gender violence, access to health services, children, work, economics, and communication—but also about hope and faith, describes podcast host Marcela Gabioud. The podcasts, she adds, help provide women and girls “ways to cope with their situation and overcome the current living conditions.”

Each episode, she says, also serves to educate the public on “representations and stereotypes that are reproduced regarding migration.”

Realities of migration

Through the project, co-funded by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), ALC Noticias strategically planned content by collaborating with organizations that accompany migrants, look at existing protocols to protect migrants and prevent abuse, and research the impact of climate change on human mobility.

In the episode “Migrant Childhoods,” host Gabioud notes that in 2024 record numbers of children and adolescents were on the move alone or were separated from their families during their migrant journey.

“When travelling alone, children are more likely to suffer violence, including sexual violence, abuse and exploitation,” she says.

The episode features a firsthand story from Yismari, a Venezuelan who has lived for the last six years in Colombia, as well as Marta Pimentel, a lawyer who works in an international refugee assistance organization and warns of the danger of traveling with children through the Darien Jungle.

Real voices, practical information

Another podcast episode, titled “The Hope for a Different Future,” features women seeking better living conditions—economically, socially and politically.

“Employment opportunities, if they reach the US, are related to care work,” reflects host Gabioud. “Precariousness, low wages, and few opportunities for growth are what awaits most of them in the destination countries.”

The podcast then features the voices of Fran Esbel, a Venezuelan accountant who had three jobs to survive; Beatriz, who wanted to make improvements to her house; and Sulaime and Losmali who hope to obtain asylum in Panama where the rest of their family await.

Gabioud says the project aims to continue to provide reliable information about what is happening without stigmatizing vulnerable people on the move and to raise awareness and support from society, through alternative media and others, about the problems suffered by migrant women, adolescents, and girls on the move.

“In addition, we want to show the impact of climate change on human mobility so that the problem is taken as a status of human asylum.”