gets to know Maribeth, a mother, cook, and dancer
Danish photographer, Helena Christensen visited UNHCR’s work in Colombia and met with women who show great strength and courage in one of the world’s most protracted conflict-ridden hot spots.
Helena met and photographed Maribeth who lives in the slums outside of Bogota, Colombia. Maribeth has been forced to flee her home many times. However Maribeth, like all other refugees and internally displaced people is not defined by her displacement – she describes herself as a mother, a cook and a dancer.
Helena said: “We traveled to the barrio of Soacha, a settlement crammed on top of a sand quarry about an hour outside of Bogota, where we met the incredible Maribeth, 41, who lives in the barrio of Altos de la Florida and works as a cook and traditional dancer. She has four children aged 19, 8, 8 and 6, and she cooks and sells incredibly good tasting dishes made with rice, meat and lots of spices, wrapped and steamed in banana leaves. She loves to dance the traditional “choco” dance and teaches it in the barrios, something she says makes her happy ‘my spirit is free when I dance and am in another world’.”