The Wider Image: Venezuelan mothers, children in tow, rush to migrate
Venezuelan migrant Arlene Gerder, 38, poses for a picture with her children Jose, 4, and Dayana, 14, as they wait for a taxi to continue their journey to Pisco, after they processed their documents at the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border service center, on the outskirts of Tumbes, Peru, June 17, 2019. Gerder left Venezuela for first time seven months ago looking for a better future for her children. She is on her way back to Peru after picking up her children from Venezuela. "I am a licensed nurse. I had two jobs in Venezuela with the government, but the money was not enough to support my children." "In Venezuela, my children were not eating well. My daughter, thank God, was studying in a private school that I paid for from (Peru), but my son wasn't. He was in a state school, he is four years old and when I returned, he did not even know the colours." Crying, she said: "I spent two years planning the journey because it's difficult, you never want to leave your country, your family, stability. Nobody wants it, but then one day we no longer had food, and my daughter told me that she was hungry. We had already eaten the little we had to eat and what was left was for the next day, but she told me that she was hungry and I gave her what I had. The next day, I had to wait for God to provide something. " "That day I decided to go with what I had. I left with $130 and some gold jewellery, that was all that I took with me." "My children will suffer, but here they will suffer with a full stomach." REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins SEARCH "MOTHERS REFUGEE" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES.