Until

Pana is a word from the language of the Warao indigenous ethnicity and means friend, partner.

Pana, a word widely used in Venezuela and which means friend, close person. It is also used to highlight some positive aptitude of another person.

And to guarantee reception, protection, promotion and integration, verbs suggested by Pope Francis in the face of the migratory reality and sensitive to the drama experienced by Venezuelans who are in Roraima, the Pana Program was created, an initiative developed by Cáritas Brasileira and Cáritas Switzerland, with support from the United States Department of State, which aims to contribute to humanitarian assistance and the integration of migrants and refugees, especially Venezuelans, who are in a situation of social vulnerability and who seek to rebuild life in Brazil.

And, in this sense, the initiative aims, over the course of a year (2018 – 2019), to favor more than 3,500 people, at least 1,224 of whom are Venezuelan migrants, based on integration, in seven capitals of the country: Boa Vista (RR), Brasília (DF), Curitiba (PR), Florianópolis (SC), Porto Velho (RO), Recife (PE) and São Paulo (SP).

The program offers a reception structure that includes the granting of social rents, essential items: food, clothes, medicines, hygiene kits — as well as legal and psychosocial support. The program has local partners that contribute to the integration of migrants in the seven Brazilian capitals where it is developed.