Eva, 80 years old: “My friends used to say I always looked sad because of the pain of my son being killed. Acting has helped me. The exercises and relaxation techniques that I have learned in the theatre helped me a lot. I’m very happy to participate. As a child I always liked reciting poetry and singing. I feel happy here.”

(c) UNHCR/M.Echandi/2015

Back in El Salvador, Eva was a tailor and her husband a carpenter. Their children  went to school. But then, the civil war started.  In 1980, her 18-year-old son José Hernán, a senior in high school, was shot dead by the Salvadoran military. Despite the political instability and growing insecurity, Eva and her family refused to leave their home country until 1984, when her youngest son Mario received a telegram calling him up for compulsory military service. “We didn’t want to leave. We clung to hope,” Eva says. She left behind her eldest daughter Margarita, who was already married, and Margarita’s children.

In 1992, after the signing of the Chapultepec peace accords, which brought peace to El Salvador, her daughter Ana Daisy decided to return home. “She told me she wanted to finish her career as a high school teacher. She works with teenagers,” Eva says.

Eva worries about the safety of her daughters and her teenage grandchildren. Her concerns are real, as many children and adolescents are being forcefully recruited by the gangs, a phenomenon that has led to many Central American children travelling without adults.

Eva rediscovered her passion for acting with “Monarcas”, a group of migrant and refugee women, which helps her to cope with the fear.

 Refugees. Ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Share their stories.