© Save The Children, 2021. All rights reserved. Licensed to the European Union under conditions.
Every day, hundreds of children and families from the Northern Triangle of Central America – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – flee the pervasive violence and poverty. Most of them embark on a long journey north, crossing Mexico towards the United States, searching for safety and opportunities.
Almost 1 out of 3 migrants entering Mexico are girls, boys, and teenagers. The EU-funded graphic novel ‘ANA’ is the story of one of them – a young girl escaping Honduras with her family to save their lives.
The comic shows the harsh but hopeful journey of many young migrants from Central America. Read now ‘ANA’, available in English, French and Spanish.
This comic has been produced thanks to EU humanitarian funding and the generous support of Guillermo Arriaga – best known for having written the scripts of movies like Amores Perros and 21 Grams – and Humberto Ramos, an internationally renowned comic book artist mostly known for his work on Spiderman.
Ana and her family flee Honduras, which suffers from a decade-long political instability and is hostage to widespread gang violence. The country is one of the 3 deadliest countries in Latin America.
Honduran families flee to save their lives after criminal gangs kill their beloved or threaten to do so if they refuse to give in to their demands. The humanitarian consequences of this violence are no different from the ones in conflict zones.
ANA’s story has been written and ideated based on many real-life testimonies of migrants and refugee children living scattered across Central America, too often in vulnerable conditions.
“The pervasive level of violence in the Northern Triangle of Central America is forcing thousands of people to leave their homes, villages and towns to save their lives. They run away because otherwise they would be assassinated, raped, tortured. What we are seeing is not different from the humanitarian consequences of war and requires very similar protection intervention,” says Álvaro De Vicente, Head of our Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“One of the main enemies we have in tackling the violence crisis in the Northern Triangle is the silence surrounding it and silence has never helped the victims of any violence. It is fundamental to let the people know what is happening, to talk about the lives and the suffering of those who flee so that their needs do not go unnoticed. The graphic novel ANA is one of the many ways to do it,” says De Vicente.
ANA reflects the lives of many girls, boys, teenagers, and women who have received help from the EU funded “Humanitarian Response for Vulnerable Migrants and People Seeking Refuge on the Northern and Southern Border of Mexico,” operated by the consortium between Save the Children and HIAS Mexico.
On the country´s northern and southern borders, the consortium provides care to girls, boys, teenagers, and victims of gender-based violence through legal assistance, psychosocial, and mental health support, as well as management and referral of cases of gender-based violence.
Most of the time, the journey to the north is dangerous and traumatic. Many flee their homes amid the worst possible conditions. They become victims of violence along the way: they are forced to sleep on the streets, they go hungry, become ill, experience assaults, abuses and some are even killed.
EU humanitarian funding ensures that children on the move have access to safe spaces where they can catch up with their education, play, be safe and receive the support they need to overcome their traumatic experiences.
Help us spread ANA’s story, download the comic available in English, French and Spanish. Silence has never helped victims of any violence.
Story by Save the Children
Publication date: 19/07/2021
