A Suitcase Full of Dreams: How Fundación Alianzas Solidarias Helps Displaced Women Weave New Realities
By Luisa Sinisterra
“I arrived in Colombia with a suitcase full of dreams.”
Nelcy Nathaly Lopez is a Venezuelan woman who immigrated to Cali, Colombia, in 2018 with nothing but a single suitcase and her infant son. In a recent interview with Displaced International, she shared her story as a single mother forcibly displaced from a country in political and economic shambles. Fundación Alianzas Solidarias, a Colombian nonprofit organization committed to supporting displaced Venezuelan and Colombian communities through humanitarian aid and community-based education, became an indispensable catalyst in what is now Nelcy’s successful business and in her journey toward personal empowerment.
Fundación Alianzas Solidarias: Alliance, Solidarity, and Community-Based Support
Founded in September 2020, Fundación Alianzas Solidarias, or FAS, was created by a group of Venezuelan women in response to the overwhelming need for support and resources among local immigrants, mothers, and underserved populations. The organization is present across the 22 districts of Cali, as well as the municipalities of Candelaria and Jamundí.
Tejiendo Realidades, or “Weaving Realities,” is a FAS project that responds directly to the growing prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV). The mission of the project is “guidance on access to justice, violence prevention, alternative mechanisms for conflict resolution and free family planning methods, promoting well-being and exercise of rights without barriers.”
The program aims to strengthen care and food security systems for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers through rapid-response financial support, while also building community knowledge about GBV and prevention methods.
Displaced International recently partnered with the Colombian NGO because DI’s mission and values align with projects that strengthen safe environments for displaced women affected by GBV. The partnership also seeks to raise awareness of current immigration policies affecting displaced communities.
Organizations such as FAS show how supporting displaced communities can create opportunity, experience, and an empowered sense of identity.
The Weight of Displacement
FAS is based in Cali, Colombia. Official figures cited by Amnesty International show that reported cases of GBV against Venezuelan women in Colombia rose from 166 in 2017 to 2,430 in 2018 and 4,165 in 2020. Coupled with Colombia’s worsening displacement crisis in 2026, this places immigrant women and mothers at clear risk.
The World Health Organization reports that an estimated 736 million women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner. GBV is “an umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will, and that is based on socially ascribed (gender) differences between males and females.” Because displacement increases vulnerability, displaced women—especially forcibly displaced mothers—face heightened risk. In research on women, violence, and migration, investigators found that “crime victimization increases the likelihood of migration, especially when it is not just women themselves who are victimized, but other people living in their households.”
(Her)story: Displaced Women Leading Their Own Recovery
Centering displaced voices as primary drivers of solutions is a fundamental belief for DI. To learn more about the positive impact of FAS, Displaced International interviewed three survivors of GBV and forced displacement who Tejiendo Realidades supported. Alongside FAS, the program helped them become empowered individuals capable of supporting other women in similar situations.
According to testimonials from Nelcy Lopez, Jeannette Tello, and B.T. (who asked to remain anonymous), learning what GBV is and how it applies directly to their own stories was a fundamental tool for empowerment. Each story reflects a different dimension of that truth.
Nelcy: From Uncertainty to Dulce Rosita
Nelcy Nathaly Lopez is a Venezuelan immigrant and mother who arrived in Cali in 2018 after being forced to flee a country unable to provide her and her infant son with stable income, education, or affordable housing. In Venezuela, Nelcy worked as a technical education assistant for a local preschool. Following years of food scarcity and unstable income, Nelcy migrated to Colombia in search of economic independence and opportunity. However, due to Colombia’s increasing political violence, especially after the 2021 Paro Nacional, Nelcy was once again forced to move—not to Venezuela, but to Perú.
Nelcy remembered the fear and insecurity surrounding her migration: “My God, what am I going to do? I had to find a place to sleep; I was starting work the next day—I mean, it was a really complicated situation… I had found a really ugly room; it had nothing in it, and I had absolutely nothing.”
It would be a year of living under these conditions and facing repeated exposure to GBV before her first contact with FAS. Pregnant with her second child and migrating to Colombia for a second time, Nelcy recalled her initial mistrust of a foundation that promised to provide supplies for her child and newborn, along with workshops dedicated to teaching women how to empower themselves in GBV-affected situations. According to Nelcy, the tools and workshops provided by Tejiendo Realidades are a primary reason behind her current successful business and bakery, Dulce Rosita.
Jeannette: Learning That Care Is a Right
Jeannette Tello’s journey looked different, but her interview and story carried the same weight of isolation and fear stemming from displacement. Forced to leave Perú in 2019 with a 3-year-old girl in tow and unable to apply for temporary protection, Jeannette discovered FAS on Facebook while searching online for alternative forms of aid. After sharing her story through the organization’s official number online, FAS added her to a WhatsApp group with dozens of other women living similar experiences.
FAS’s community-based group has now been with Jeannette for five years. It became the reason she was able to navigate the legalities behind temporary protection and the reason she received initial prenatal care. “[I realized] how the care is my entitled right. Before, I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything about my rights, and not knowing scared me out of asking for help. Fundación Alianzas Solidarias empowered me with knowledge and helped me feel like I wasn’t alone,” she stated.
B.T.: Turning Solidarity into Advocacy
Programs such as Tejiendo Realidades have inspired participants to become leaders and volunteers for the cause. One example is B.T., a mother who immigrated from Venezuela to Colombia half a decade ago. She is now a FAS volunteer based in the United States, and her passion for advocacy and education mirrors the companionship and support she found through FAS. “There is a great deal of gender-based violence in [the United States] as well—including issues surrounding sexual abuse. People ought to be informed about this. They should have support. Resources should be made available so that people know what to do and how to act—so they don’t stay silent or live in fear.”
Following FAS’s workshops and community-based learning in Tejiendo Realidades, B.T. was able to distinguish between misinformation and truth surrounding prenatal and newborn care, enabling her to provide her child with proper nutrition and education. When asked what programs dedicated to helping immigrant women and mothers should provide, B.T. emphasized the power of solidarity. “I know what it’s like not to have someone take your hand, so to speak. It feels bad. So, whenever I can guide and take someone’s hand, I do.”
Organizational Impact
The stories of these women are echoed among the dozens of women participating in FAS programs. In late 2025, Tejiendo Realidades was recognized by the Premio Cívico, an award that honors grassroots, community-led initiatives that improve quality of life in neighborhoods across Cali and the Valle del Cauca. FAS President Daianna Reyes commented on the significance of this achievement: “[The award] is not merely an award: it is the voice of hundreds of migrant, refugee, and Colombian women who build support networks, and who care for, accompany, and transform their communities through collective strength.”
The program’s reach continues to grow, encompassing additional FAS initiatives that support breastfeeding mothers and expand its network across Cali’s communities.
Displaced International’s Partnership and Call to Action
Behind every statistic on GBV, behind every case filed or unfiled, and behind every woman who did not know she had rights until someone told her, there is a story like the stories of FAS participants waiting to be heard.
Fundación Alianzas Solidarias was built on a belief in the power of story: information is not a luxury for displaced women; it is a lifeline. The organization exemplifies how solutions to displacement do not always emerge from institutions. Sometimes, they emerge from a WhatsApp group, a bakery, and the quiet decision of one woman to take another woman’s hand.
Displaced International’s partnership with FAS is rooted in consensus around the empowerment of local voices amplified by global solidarity. DI partners with FAS not to speak on behalf of displaced women, but to ensure that their voices, expertise, resilience, and hard-won knowledge can reach the rooms where decisions are made.
In a moment when federal funding for humanitarian programs is contracting and support systems that once caught the most vulnerable are disappearing, organizations like FAS represent what remains: community, built by the displaced, for the displaced.
The writer is an executive and research intern at Displaced International.
