Our Migration Response

A Venezuelan family in Guyana travels by canoe to collect humanitarian assistance distributed by PADF and its partners.

The Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) works throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to provide sustainable solutions for individuals who have left their homes in search of better, safer lives.

Migrant populations in Latin America and the Caribbean typically come from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Central America’s Northern Triangle. As migrant families travel through the region, they endure harsh and often dangerous conditions, including the risk of exploitation, trafficking, violence, disease, and much more.

PADF works to respond to these populations by offering support in the areas of humanitarian assistance, shelter, health and nutrition, psychosocial assistance, education, livelihoods, protection and legal support, and more. We work with local community organizations, government entities, and the private sector to foster a hemisphere of opportunities in which everyone can access basic resources and rights. With its community partners, PADF listens to the priorities of vulnerable populations to provide solutions that are sustainable, comprehensive, and address the evolving needs of the persons of concern that we support. From emergency humanitarian assistance in the Darién Province of Panama, to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education programs for students in Peru, to business mentorship and vocational training for adults in Aruba and Curaçao, PADF strives to provide support services that are effective, are participatory, and create sustainable change.

PADF equally responds to the needs of the host communities by supporting capacity building and integration efforts. Through its migration programming, PADF has provided language training, psychosocial assistance, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) information and rehabilitation, and more to vulnerable host community members. PADF is committed to contributing to peaceful co-existence and long-term integration through various initiatives. One particularly powerful integration initiative has been in the form of anti-xenophobia campaigns. In various countries throughout the region, PADF has worked to spread awareness and encourage host community members to build long-lasting positive relationships with the migrant families living alongside them.

Currently, PADF serves vulnerable migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through eight programs in Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Guyana, Panama, Peru, The Bahamas, and Trinidad and Tobago. Our work is made possible thanks to the support of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.