A group of refugee and migrant minors joined their imagination to create the comic “The Adventures of Mafu”, a little fox who witnesses the different events that can put people’s safety at risk and force them to flee suddenly to find a place where live in peace.
The cartoon, an initiative of the UN Refugee Agency (Acnur) and the Foundation of the Americas (Fudela), was presented on the occasion of World Children’s Day, which is commemorated this Thursday, June 1.
The authors of “Las Aventuras de Mafu” are part of “Change the World”, one of the community processes led by Acnur and Fudela in Esmeraldas, a province on the north coast of Ecuador bordering Colombia.
The program seeks to strengthen the inclusion and leadership of children and adolescents through different activities, including art and painting.
Thanks to this initiative and the support of the Esmeraldas Museum and Cultural Center, through the “Tambos de Lectura” project, they managed to make their dream of publishing a story that reflects their feelings about displacement come true, UNHCR explained in a communicator.
In this comic, the little fox Mafu goes from having a quiet life in “Sumak Llakta” (beautiful city in Kichwa), full of laughter and good times, to being forced to flee to “Chiri Llakta” (cold place in Kichwa), where He will have to join forces with his new friends to maintain the peace that he appreciates so much.
“This cartoon is special because it comes directly from the imagination and experiences of children and adolescents who have experienced forced displacement firsthand,” said the deputy representative of UNHCR Ecuador, Magda Medina.
“With it, we want people to change the stereotypes that do not allow them to see the harsh experiences that those who are forced to flee go through in search of a safe place,” he added.
With this, UNHCR and Fudela seek that “The Adventures of Mafu” be “an awareness tool for children and adolescents that shows, shows and represents the different causes of forced displacement, as well as the importance of integration processes in the host communities.
Ecuador has historically recognized more than 74,000 refugees, most of them from neighboring Colombia, and is home to more than 500,000 refugees and migrants from Venezuela, according to estimates by the Working Group for Refugees and Migrants (GTRM), from of which 43% are minors. EFE
