Those who circulate daily around the Santarém bus station, in downtown streets and neighborhoods have noticed men, women and children speaking an unknown language.  Women draw attention with their long dark hair and skirts, and colorful dresses. All are part of the Venezuelan indigenous community of the Warao ethnic group, who have migrated to the city of Santarém in search of a better quality of life. They are far from home, more than 1,700 kilometers (10,500 miles). They are the oldest people of the Orinoco Delta, also known as "people of the canoe".

New home in Brazil

In Santarém, the interior of Pará, the Warao are living as best as they can. At the makeshift shelter on BR-163, about five miles from downtown, they sleep in blue canvas tents, wash their clothes and hang them on the barbed-wire fence. Everything they have is inside the tents and include bags with food, shoes, medicines, clothes, toys, and other items donated by people connected to churches, schools, local residents and humanitarians. 

The Warao have migrated to Brazilian cities in the extreme north since 2014, when the political and economic crisis in Venezuela worsened, causing a lack of food, personal hygiene items, medicine, and health care.

Since the beginning of April, a group of Seventh-day Adventist Church members have been on-site volunteering and assisting however they can. As a result, 61 people were baptized in April.

During the day, new residents of western Pará received visits, clothing and food. At night, they were invited to participate in a program with music, lectures on health, family and Bible study.

"We see that God begins to do a special work in their hearts. They are far from their land, but feel the power of God here,” says Cassimiro Moraes, youth director for the entire western region of Pará. “Within that community we have an Adventist Church and we are going to start a job that is not easy. It has the issue of their culture, the language, but that is the challenge, and we will move forward, " 

Herica Moreira is part of the One Year in Mission (OYIM) project, a program in which young people dedicate to one year of volunteer work. She explained that it is a pleasure to feel useful helping people. "They are excluded from society, and we can do our part and show the Word of God to them, they are happy and it is gratifying."