A holiday gala far away from home.
Musicians of the Roraima Orchestra
give free concerts to promote themselves.
The musicians are
mostly Venezuelan migrants
trying to make it in Peru.
But it's hard,
says lead viola player Guillermo Gonzalez.
Although he's a professional musician,
the only job he's been able to land,
cleaning car tires,
has increased injuries to his back.
Most Venezuelan migrants
are willing to do any job,
and most without healthcare.
I've stopped eating some food
to buy pills.
One of my colleagues
gave me part of his salary,
so I managed to pay for 10 appointments.
But for the most part,
no one gives me a hand.
More than 1.2 million Venezuelans
are displaced in Peru.
The National Superintendency for Migration
says nearly 80% of them don't have
health insurance or other benefits.
At the Santa Rosa Parish
on the outskirts of the capital,
at least 50 poor Venezuelan families
live on handouts.
Most don't have money for food
or a stable job,
and many have health problems.
The law here says that
only migrant children under 5 years old
and pregnant women
can have free medical care.
The rest must have a residence card,
but the majority doesn't have one.
Joselyn Rojas says her son Cristian
will soon turn 6
and lose his free healthcare.
However, she says,
it doesn't make much of a difference
to have a work permit.
My husband has the residency card,
but he works in an informal job
where he has no benefits.
So we're simply up in the air,
without anything.
Economists here say
Venezuelans have contributed to Peru's GDP
with 0.2% last year.
But the challenges continue to be great.
We're talking about
an extraordinary situation,
for which we have to generate
extraordinary norms.
We are talking with the authorities
to advance the paperwork
as the door opener for these rights.
Nearly 30% of Venezuelan migrants
are professionals, but 9 out of 10
do not work in their expertise.
Among these musicians, there are
security guards, cooks, street vendors.
Many say they hope
they can soon play full time, but for now,
their contribution to Peruvians
is music that heals the soul.
Mariana Sanchez, Al Jazeera, Lima, Peru.