LIMA, Peru – Cleofe Jauregui has become like family to about a dozen Venezuelan refugee women who gather weekly to share stories, sew bags to sell and learn how to live life away from their home country.
“To me, they are not from another country,” said Jauregui, who has been inviting refugee women to her home since last summer. “To me, they have become like a family, and sometimes blood isn’t what makes you family but the quality person you are.”
Nerida Anamelua threads a needle during a sewing class in Cleofé Jauregui's home in the San Juan de Lurigancho neighborhood of Lima, Peru. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Nerida Anamelua (left) and Keila Moncada talk during a sewing class in Cleofé Jauregui's home in Lima. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
From left: Venzuelan migrant Neida Pulido, Peruvian Merida Anamelua, and Venezuelan migrant Keila Moncada look at a website to sell some of the products they've made in Cleofé Jauregui's home. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Traditional Peruvian embroidered flowers are one of the items sewn by Venezuelan immigrant women in Cleofé Jauregui's home. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
A Barbie doll models clothes made by the daughter of one of the refugee women who sew in Cleofé Jauregui's home. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Cleofé Jauregui has opened her arms and her home to about a dozen women who have fled the conflict and chaos in Venezuela. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Venezuelan migrant Neida Pulido is one of the women in Cleofé Jauregui's sewing classes. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
A needle protrudes from a partly finished embroidery project during a sewing class. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Angel Gutierrez, 3, accompanies his mom, Venezuelan migrant Keila Moncada, to a sewing class in Cleofé Jauregui's home. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Nerida Anamelua, who sewed the flowers on her blouse, accepts a glass of Inca Kola during a sewing class in Cleofé Jauregui's home. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Keila Moncada pulls back the curtain during a sewing class in Cleofé Jauregui's home in Lima. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Workers with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees say goodbye to Cleofé Jauregui after observing a sewing class in her Lima hoe. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
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