This is Carenina Bellandia with the assignment podcast.

I find it hard to keep track of the stories of hardship coming from my country, Venezuela.

If I don't hear about them through friends or family members, I read them almost on a daily basis.

Thousands are living every day and most of them pass through the Colombian city of

Kukuta on the border with Venezuela. I wanted to know what it's

like there at the heart of what's become a huge migration crisis so I want to find out. I'm Karanina Belandia in the Colombian city of Kukuta, on the border with Venezuela.

I grew up in Venezuela, but left for the UK more than a decade ago. Today

Kuguta is overflowing with Venezuelans, fleeing my country's economic collapse,

including the Harpist you can hear tuning up and his three bondmates.

This is a desperate place where people are doing anything they can to survive

and to provide for their families back at home.

And among the desperation are glimmers of hope, like the music produced by these four young men.

In this edition of assignment on the BBC World Service, I'm going to be exploring the lives

of these Venezuelans and trying to understand how and why they've ended up in this border town. So time for some introductions.

The front man and sing. So time for some introductions.

The frontman and singer is Gabriel Medina.

He's wearing al-Pargatas.

Typical Venezuelan shoes in the colors of the flag, yellow, blue and red, in a matching wrist band.

And as for the others, well,er to the most and the Maractus

the Maractus is Marést from Rubéin's Palazzios.

That's Rubein Palacios, on Maracas, who somehow manages to juggle them and play them at the same time.

His neatly trimmed facial hair in sharp hairline show this is a man who cares about how he looks. In the four, the most Playing the Quattro, a traditional Venezuelan four-string guitar-like instrument is

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