IRIN NEWS: Venezuela crisis spirals, needs across the Colombian border grow →

Martha Alarcon strokes the head of a young Venezuelan woman in tears who is  hungry and exhausted from walking the highway in scorching heat.

This is nothing new for Alarcon. Owner of a small roadside snack stall, the 55-year-old Colombian has been helping Venezuelans trying to escape their country’s economic collapse for more than two years – providing food, drink, and a place to sleep on the outskirts of the overrun border town of Cúcuta.

Venezuelan´s arrive at a road by shelter in tears, hungry and exhausted from walking the highway in scorching heat. Steven Grattan/IRIN