It is always amazing to encounter reactions of surprise from my colleagues when I talk about the enormous number of Colombians that fled their homes and land so that they could save their lives. The overwhelming stereotype that confines Colombia to being the biggest producer and exporter of cocaine in the world often obscures the daily reality that the average Colombian has to face.

Crises are the stock and trade of humanitarian agencies. Yet there is no consensus or clarity in the emergency response field as to what constitutes a humanitarian crisis. In a saturated global media environment, the temptation is great for agencies to designate particular situations as humanitarian crises to get attention to a neglected group of vulnerable people or to stigmatize the responsible parties. The rhetorical leaps from “difficult situation” to “humanitarian crisis” to “massive humanitarian crisis” to “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis” are as easy as skipping over a puddle.

As I sit here on the eve of the U.S. elections, I can recall only one exchange of opinions on Colombia between the Presidential candidates.

Traveling back from Tame to Arauca, on the border region of Colombia and Venezuela, my colleagues and I stopped in a little town called Pueblo Nuevo to meet with displaced people there. We had been trying to reach a local religious figure who was providing assistance to families in need, but had not yet reached him. So, we chose to just drop in and try our luck. Unfortunately, on arrival, not only could we not find the priest, but we also couldn't find the church. People seemed to not know where it was.